THE Northern Echo doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Jeremy Corbyn.

He struggles to get his message across beyond a coterie of ardent supporters who will hear no wrong and we fear Labour is unelectable while he is in charge.

However, speaking out about the demonisation of Muslims this weekend he hit the nail on the head.

Although we know it isn’t, the UK’s Prevent counter-terrorism strategy feels as though it is focused solely on detecting and preventing militant Islamists.

Prevent imposes a statutory duty on public bodies to “prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. In effect, it requires professionals to monitor people’s religious and political leanings.

In doing so it casts a cloud of suspicion over the entire Muslim community which is counter-productive if the aim is to break down barriers by challenging division and negativity in society.

Sadly, the ugly truth is that Britain faces multiple national security threats ranging from far right extremism, to radical militant Islam, espionage and cyber terrorism.

Of course, the most significant terrorist threat comes from international terrorism with its cruel ambition to mount high-profile attacks with mass casualties – and we must always be watchful.

It is obviously a good idea to find ways of preventing people being drawn into terrorism. But how to go about that has long been a source of controversy.

We agree with Jeremy Corbyn’s call for great inclusion. The only sensible way to defeat international terrorism is to stand together.

The moderate Muslim majority can play a crucial role by being the eyes and ears of our security services. Reinforcing racist stereotypes certainly won’t help at all.