I don't even remember what the referendum news was about. I do know that I don't get asked to show visitors around the Central Mosque any more however. A funny old world, eh?

That referendum in the news just highlights once more the crisis Europe is facing over national identities. The possibilities of co-operation or isolation, domination, submission, and submergence of national identities are discussed. Can we have integration without assimilation. Now there is a problem that minorities everywhere can identify with.

In what is seen as hard times it's easy to blame someone other than ourselves for our difficulties, and then to find the culprits we have to define who is not one of us. Does our nationality depend upon our accent, skin colour or religion? Our taste in food or clothing, or the shape of a nose.

In Germany New fascists are burning refugee hostels, and in the Balkans we see a grim reminder of the grotesque excesses that nationalism can so easily stir up. In France, over the last few years, Jean Marie Le Pen has become a major national figure, as can be seen by his prominence in the recent campaigns, where once he was an eccentric minor politician, with his demands for the repatriation of mostly muslim immigrants from the former French colonies.

In Britain we are not immune from simplistic views of Nationalism, witness the rapid drafting of anti-German rhetoric into the front line during our recent economic turmoil, always guaranteed to provide a knee-jerk distraction from the issues.

Now one doesn't think of Scots as being any less nationalistic than most, and the tartan army is recognised all around the world, but I like to think that the spread of Scots to the farthest corners of the globe perhaps gives them a greater understanding and concern for other people trying to live in a strange place, even if that place so strange to them is Glasgow.

On Saturday, as part of Glasgow's "Doors Open Day", the Central Mosque and Islamic Centre opened its doors and literally thousands of non-muslim Glaswegians walked in.

Like many others, I met hundreds of visitors as I played amateur tour guide, and I was overwhelmed by the obvious good nature of these strangers. Young people, old people, couples and families, all displaying an open inquisitiveness and lack of prejudice, unmistakeably earnest in their attempts to find a closer understanding, and clearly respectful towards those aspects of Islam which must sometimes make us seem very strange. As for the littlest visitors, who didn't know what was going on, well, they got to roll around on a carpet that must have seemed the size of a football pitch.

The Prophet said "Whoever believes in God and the Last Day should not harm his neighbour." As the new generations of muslims born here as Glasgwegians and muslim Scots cast off the label of immigrants, and try to integrate without assimilation, let us hope that Saturday's tolerance will be fostered in the community as a bulwark against any local rabble rousing Le Pens looking for a minority to blame. Let us hope that non-muslim Glaswegians will also fight for a muslim's right to be a friend and neighbour.