I HAVE been so disappointed in humanity these last few weeks. Since the horrific Manchester bomb, in which 22 people lost their lives – the youngest, just eight years old – there has rightly been an outpouring of grief and disbelief.

It feels like just weeks ago I wrote about the Westminster terror attack, the defiance of the London people, and the fact that the quick actions of the Metropolitan police prevented further loss of life.

But just two months later the unthinkable happened – a suicide bomber struck at an Ariana Grande gig, taking innocent youngsters to their deaths in the most shocking attack to hit Britain’s shores in decades.

It is impossible to comprehend why this happened. Reports suggest that bomber Salman Abedi had become withdrawn in the year before the attack and recently returned from Libya, and was angry at airstrikes on Syria.

We will never know really what drove him to do what he did. But he had become radicalised. He had been brainwashed. He was, dare I say it, insane. This does not absolve him of responsibility for what he did, but it does separate him from the huge majority of sensible, peaceful, ordinary Muslims that make up 2.7m, or more than four per cent, of the British population.

So when I started reading posts on social media by who I believed to be intelligent people, venerating an agenda of hate, I was dismayed.

Not just one but several people I know took it on themselves to call for revenge, by blocking immigration, or by sharing posts from known far-right lunatics which stopped just short of calling for attacks on Muslims to avoid the criminal charge of inciting racial hatred, but actually doing just that.

Others called for “violent retribution”.

Already several hate crimes have been reported locally, and I know some, who perhaps don’t read the news or keep up to date with current affairs in as much detail as they should, have shrunk in fear at the sight of any darker-skinned young men. Fear and ignorance seem to have taken over. It’s like we’ve transported several centuries into the Dark Ages, when anyone different who might potentially have been a threat was seen as an invader and had to be dealt with accordingly.

I’d like to think civilisation has progressed since then. Globalisation and integration are, on the whole, good things. We should be open to different cultures and beliefs, embrace people into our fold.

Twenty years ago, I was in Leeds rail station when an IRA device exploded nearby. I was a young student, sipping a hot chocolate in the café and reading a newspaper while I waited for a train back to York, when dozens of police officers descended on the station. The ground shook as a bomb exploded nearby, while police told us to run. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

But I didn’t leave the station that day, in minor shock, to be suspicious of every Northern Irish person I met. If I heard the accent in a shop or pub, I didn’t cower in terror and call for them to be deported. No one did.

No, the fear that is being peddled now that our terrorists, on the whole, have darker skin, is pure and simple racism.

The way of dealing with the IRA was not “violent retribution”. Negotiation, diplomacy and devolution were major parts of the solution in the end.

Yes, we are dealing with a different enemy now, but their objective is to spread fear and division. By spreading hate, fear, even violence, we are giving them exactly what they want. There’s no easy answer, but don’t play into their hands by complying with the hate agenda.