First we had the cold war to keep us shivering with fear, but as the wall came down and McDonalds moved into Moscow it was not unusual to hear muslims saying 'they still need an enemy, and we are next'. I said it myself, even on the radio. So here we are, since 2001, with a political climate in which governments justify their policies by our need to be terrified. This is not healthy for anyone, but when well armed and  hugely powerful governments portray you as the bogeyman from whom they intend to protect their children, I promise you it can start to feel very scary indeed.

They say that just because you’re paranoid that doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. At the same time, just because they are out to get you doesn’t mean that you aren’t paranoid. The television images of planes used as weapons may have initiated fear in the general public, with the pictures of men in biohazard suits now reinforcing it, but we must beware of putting all our fears into one atypical basket.

Fear can affect our judgement profoundly. We easily misinterpret things and come up with inappropriate responses. So the suspicious powder that caused the evacuation of the Wolverhampton Mail Centre at the weekend turned out to be a love letter containing two love hearts crushed by the sorting machinery. There must be a poetic analogy to life there somewhere.

Now a little fear is by no means a bad thing. We tend to ignore (or even fiercely defend) the things most likely to kill us, like our cars, our diet or our drink. We are much less likely to die from a terrorist attack than we are from our own stupidity, so perhaps a little fear is needed to help us change our ways. Qur’an says “Fear a day wherein you shall be returned to God and every soul shall be paid in full what it has earned.”

Fear can even enhance the life experience, that’s why so many seek it out, in carnival rides and scary movies. Even the real fears of war are often seen in retrospect as peak experiences. The proximity of death can make life taste very sweet, especially when you survive the experience. But whereas a few may choose the adrenalin rush of real danger, some, like the Afghan refugees fleeing the bombs falling around them, have it thrust upon them.

What we need to counter the negative aspects of fear is hope, and God “sends the lightning for fear and hope” says the Qur’an. Power has no right and wrong, those are only found in the ends to which mankind directs it. Our actions in the present situation will eventually be judged by whether we bring new hope to those innocents we currently overwhelm with fear.