An extraordinary event held at Glasgow City Chambers by the charity Roshni last night caused barely a public ripple, but should have done.

The gathering of young Scots from ethnic minorities, mainly of Asian heritage and largely muslim background was claimed by the charity as a UK first.

The main speaker, Nazir Afzal OBE, former chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in the North West of England confirmed this. It should be the start of a national conversation, he said, and he is surely right.

The central focus was startling, for a start. Roshni, which works works to tackle sensitive issues including child abuse in Scotland's ethnic minority communities, had chosen to pair child sexual exploitation with religious and political radicalisation.

The challenging question the charity posed was this: why are young people who are groomed for sexual exploitation viewed as victims, while young British muslims who are lured to join supposed Jihad by groups such as Isis, in countries such as Syria are treated as criminals?

Mr Afzal supported the contention. Many of the processes of grooming: isolating people and alienating them from family, manipulation by charismatic individuals and promises of material rewards are similar, he said.

But the event was about the voices of young people. It was a rare opportunity for them to discuss the issues, speak up about their own concerns and challenge those in positions of power.

They could do this, because Roshni had managed to invite along an impressive guest list of those holding such positions. Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, acting Children's Minister Fiona Mcleod MSP, Scottish children's commissioner Tam Baillie and Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone of Police Scotland were among those put on the spot.

The young people were equally keen to question the roles of their own families, mosques and imams in challenging radicalisation. Not all of the imams present seemed have a good answer, describing it as a 'community problem' rather than one they could directly influence.

In fairness, some of the young people agreed. Much radicalisation is not now taking place in the mosques, but online, they said, where isolated young people are more vulnerable to being misled. The same, of course, applies to sexual abuse.

Parents were also criticised for being out of touch with the realities of modern technology. Mr Afzal drew laughter from the young audience, when he described one Muslim father who told him: "My job is to ensure my daughter stays at home and stays away from boys. She listens to me, she doesn't go out and she doesn't have a boyfriend... Where is she? Why she's upstairs, online".

In fairness too, to the mosques and imams, there is plainly some effort going on to counter potential radicalisation. Glasgow Central Mosque has held a series of events relating to such issues, and has one coming up on the dangers of the internet and social media. Meanwhile a young man told the audience that youth wings of mosques are going out to universities in Glasgow to speak directly to young muslims. In English, he added, implying that many young people do not listen to Imams who use predominantly Urdu and Punjabi - and are vulnerable to charismatic radicals with strong messages conveyed in English.

There was criticism of some in the media, with the readiness of some newspapers and politicians to identify criminals, terrorists or even lawyers like Mr Afzal as Muslim when they would make no mention of their faith if they were white.

There was also criticism of police and government for racial profiling and the controversial Prevent counter-terrorism policy, leading some young people to feel victimised. Some respond to the climate in the UK by saying, "my faith is being attacked, and I must defend it", one audience member explained.

The event brought difficult issues into focus and asked awkward questions to which the professionals present responded with varying degrees of success. Fiona McLeod was rather unimpressive and initially seemed reluctant to explain what the government was doing to make Muslim young people feel part of mainstream society - although she eventually pointed to the Scottish Government's One Scotland Many Cultures campaign, and said we could learn much from the battle against sectarianism.

Mr Mulholland's attempt to find common ground by relating his experiences of being questioned at the airport after trips to Libya and Mauritius seemed misguided. But facing fairly intense interrogation about the police's role, Iain Livingstone did a good job of explaining that while Police Scotland has a duty to implement the law, the force is trying to do it sensitively.

The complexity of balancing civil liberties with the need to protect the community makes for challenging policing, he said. "I don't seek to downplay that," he added. "If we are not carrying out our duty in a fair manner, tell me about it and I'll do something about it."

With people increasingly living much of their lives in virtual communities, police need to be on the virtual streets as well as the actual ones, he added.

While the answers are far from clear, Mr Afzal called for a national helpline which would deal confidentially with calls for help from those in danger from extremist ideology.

This could be modelled, he said, on the Ask Frank website and phoneline which offers non-judgemental advice for people who use drugs. This would surely be helpful and he revealed he is in talks with Roshni about how one could be set up.

But what was most apparent was that while this is clearly an important national debate, it is absurd for young people not to be involved in it.

There may yet be ripples from this event and they may spread a long way beyond Glasgow.