I have to confess I'm not a fan of the UK's anti-terror legislation at the best of times, but this week's conviction and sentencing of Miles Cooper, the infamous letter bomber, has helped to confirm what many Muslims have suspected for a long time: there's one law for us and one law for them.

I have to confess I'm not a fan of the UK's anti-terror legislation at the best of times, but this week's conviction and sentencing of Miles Cooper, the infamous letter bomber, has helped to confirm what many Muslims have suspected for a long time: there's one law for us and one law for them.

Miles Cooper is a terrorist. Not my words, but the words of the Judge Julian Hall who was presiding over the case. During the trial, Miles Cooper said he was "concerned about the direction my country was heading in" and, therefore, tried to change the political will through the use of violence. That violence included sending seven letter bombs containing nails and broken glass, injuring eight people. In addition, when the police raided his home they described it as a "bomb factory".

Despite this, Cooper was not charged under any of the recent anti-terror legislation; he was not charged with the commission, preparation or carrying out of any terrorist activity: he was charged under the Explosive Substances Act and the Offences Against the Person Act. As a result, his sentence is extremely light in comparison with those charged under terror legislation, even those who did not have an active plot and had not harmed a single person.

Our authorities are playing with fire if they continue with such blatant double standards in the application of anti-terror laws. No doubt young Muslims will feel more frustrated if they feel they are being treated differently by the law. Clearly, this provides fodder for extremists to radicalise our youth and plays into the hands of the terrorists themselves.

One just has to imagine if this hadn't been Miles but Mohammed, how different the headlines, and prosecution, might have been.

Humza Yousaf, Convener Young Asian Scots for Independence, 66 Colonsay Drive, Newton Mearns, Glasgow.