It caused quite a stir when it was built more than two decades ago, but now the distinctive domes of Glasgow Central Mosque are an unremarked-upon feature of the Clydeside skyline. The large modern building is a landmark of the transformed Gorbals, no more foreign than the nearby Citizens' Theatre, with its reputation for staging highbrow European plays.
Locals found the mosque more pleasing on the eye than the monolithic Sir Basil Spence tower blocks the council forced them to live in for decades. The quiet men and women who worship there were no trouble at all - and the Gorbals certainly knows trouble when it comes visiting.
Trouble will visit this Saturday, in the form of an organisation calling itself the Scottish Defence League (SDL). It plans to protest near the mosque against what it says is the rise of Islamic extremism. There has never been any suggestion that Glasgow's mosque gives succour to extremists - it does not. But that will not stop the SDL. It is an offshoot of the English Defence League (EDL), which claims it was established in response to the incident in Luton this March when soldiers were spat upon by anti-war protesters.
I am no fan of Islamist extremism and write as a muscular liberal and a member of the Richard Dawkins fan club. I'm irritated when politicians pander to religion. I've even flirted with the idea of setting up Atheists for Independence. Our secular society is morally preferable to countries where women are banned from driving, voting and dressing as they wish, where being gay or having adulterous relationships can result in death. We should defend secular liberalism. But fascists have emerged as a greater threat to our democracy than mad mullahs. This is Remembrance Sunday; we all know what happens when the jackboot gains an electoral toehold.
There are good grounds to suspect that the Scottish Defence League, like its English counterpart, has links with the British National party. An investigation by the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight found several high profile EDL members had associations with the far right. There is also a strong connection with organised football hooligans who are using the internet to build support for the Glasgow rally. One site, Casualsunited, employs a bizarre mix of political rhetoric and aggressive iconography. It insists it is non-violent, non-racist and warns "Nazis" to stay away. But one page features a clenched fist against a Union Jack and the words: "We are the infidels!"
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Over on the social networking site Facebook, the SDL page includes the usual bulldog profile pictures. But the use of Scottish symbolism is more worrying - a lion rampant logo and phrases such as: "Let us rise now and be a nation again. We must unite the clans against the extremists." That will be the "non-violent" Ku Klux Klans then . . .
All this fascism lite is intended to whip up hatred and will lead to more racist attacks. Fascists, whether in the BNP or the SDL, are getting better at marketing themselves. They know people enjoy many aspects of multi-cultural Britain. Most people have non-white friends and neighbours. So the rivers of blood rhetoric of the 1960s and 1970s will not wash in the 21st century This is why the BNP has repackaged itself as an anti-Islamic, anti-immigration organisation. Racism is ugly, so when Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time, he tried - unsuccessfully - to present the BNP as being opposed to an ideology, not a skin tone.
The Scottish and English Defence Leagues employ the same approach. They have learned from the tactics of the old far left. Trotskyite groups such as the Militant Tendency, which operated within the Labour Party in the 1970s and 1980s, believed the public was not ready for the revolutionary society it wanted to create. So it had a "transitional programme", containing potentially popular policies such as the nationalisation of the banks. This was seen as a way of attracting supporters who might not warm to the ultimate aim of creating Soviet-style workers' councils through armed struggle.
The far left are at the other end of the ideological spectrum from the fascists and have been at the forefront of organisations such as the Anti-Nazi League. But the tactics are the same. Nick Griffin has his "transitional programme", halt immigration, oppose Islamic extremists. Significantly, he also has a pop at the banks. Beneath the surface he remains an unreconstructed, white supremacist Holocaust denier.
The most uncomfortable moment on Question Time, for me, came when Griffin condemned Islam for making women second-class citizens and for backing terrorism. It was a hypocritical ruse - since when did the BNP champion feminism and pacifism? But it was disconcerting to someone like myself, who has criticised certain strands of Islam for the treatment of women, gays and its own critics. Does expressing these legitimate concerns put us on the side of the storm troopers? This is why Griffin's presence poisons democratic debate and why he should never have been given a platform by the BBC.
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The choice is stark. A liberal society protects minorities. It allows collaboration between people who might disagree on some issues but find common ground when it matters - in this case opposing fascism. This is why I intend to join the counter-demonstration on Glasgow Green at noon this Saturday.
Political veterans will sense something familiar in the name of the rally - Scotland United. Bill Speirs, the former general secretary of the STUC, who died recently, helped create the first Scotland United after the Tory general election victory of 1992. Its purpose was to bring together SNP and Labour Party supporters, to settle their differences, and to force London to make concessions on constitutional change.
Speirs would surely approve of the new incarnation, even though it includes the Tories that the original organisation was formed to oppose. Scotland United 2009 is a combination of churches, politicians and individuals who want the country to tell the far right they are not welcome here. Annabel Goldie, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, will speak alongside the SNP deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
It is encouraging that the Scottish-Islamic Foundation is one of the main drivers. It has been criticised in the past for being too radically religious and the SNP government has been criticised for supporting it - Osama Saeed, one of the party's prospective candidates, is one of its leading lights.
But let's be pragmatic and look at its record. The foundation has gone out of its way to vocally oppose terrorism, organising a spontaneous rally after the Glasgow airport attacks. By engaging young Muslims in the political process, by collaborating with the Holyrood government and cross-party organisations like Scotland United, it places the Muslim community firmly in middle Scotland. It builds bridges. The Glasgow Green event will include a march to the cenotaph, where a two-minute silence will be observed for the war dead. Surely this must be applauded?
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Far from appeasing Islamists, as some claim, the close co-operation between civic Scotland and Muslim Scotland fostered by the foundation appears to be paying dividends. By demonstrating that Scottish national identity can embrace all faiths and ethnicities, you neutralise the alienation and resentment that drives young people towards the jihadists.
I still don't like burkas and remain a proud liberal. But if radical young Muslims eschew violence and embrace democracy by wrapping themselves in the saltire, that's got to be positive . Far better than allowing our flag, like the Union Jack, to be stolen by racists masquerading as Scotland's defenders.