CT RILEY (HAS, Aug 12) demonstrates perfectly the point I was making in my previous letter (HAS, Aug 8). The suggestion that we are not allowed to talk about immigration is a myth.

I do not accuse him of racism, but I disagree with him. When I explain why, I trust he will not accuse me of political correctness.

Mr Riley acknowledges that the vast majority of immigrants are good people, and that those who have been driven to acts of Islamist terrorism in Britain are usually British-born.

Nevertheless, he calls for Europe to close its borders, even though he must know that refugees are more likely to be fleeing Islamist violence than supporting it.

Confusingly, he calls for the “internment of jihadists.” If he is referring to those who attempt acts of indiscriminate mass murder on our streets, then they should brought to trial and, if convicted, locked up indefinitely.

Internment is something else, generally understood to mean incarceration, without trial, of people who are perceived as potentially sympathetic to a hostile group. This is unjust and counterproductive.

I couldn’t put it any better than Mr Riley did himself in a recent letter (HAS, April 18).

He wrote: “When Northern Ireland had internment it didn’t work and drove the very people Britain needed to win over into the arms of the IRA.

“If internment were used against Muslims, it would not only drive people into joining groups such as ISIS but give them the proof they needed to justify past, present and future atrocities.”

Pete Winstanley, Durham