Despite knowing no British Muslims at all, Katie Freeman admits she used to have some stereotypical assumptions: that they ate nothing but Asian food, that women were treated as second-class citizens, forced to wear the hijab. In fact, she would have stated that immigration from Islamic countries such as Pakistan was putting too great a strain on the NHS and “pushing out” the traditional British way of life.

“You could say I followed the herd,” Katie, 43, says today, as she shares tea and cake in the dining room of her new friend Saima Alvi, a 49-year-old religious affairs teacher from Altrincham, Greater Manchester. “I’d just never engaged with anyone Muslim before.”