Attorney General Eric Holder was right to give a strong statement of support to the FBI for its controversial undercover operations in terrorism cases.

For years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the department appeared flummoxed by how to deal with the Muslim community. Wanting the emphasize the U.S.’s commitment to civil rights, the department often engaged with Muslim groups led by adherents of the same conservative Islamist ideology that provides fertile soil for extremists. Many of the groups or their leaders were under investigation in terrorism financing probes.

Under Holder, the department has worked to find a fresh crop of more moderate Muslim groups to partner with on outreach efforts. He established an Arab-American and Muslim Engagement Advisory Group to assist him in this re-start on outreach. This is a good and largely unheralded development.

Speaking to the group Muslim Advocates in San Francisco Friday evening, Holder emphasized the department’s civil rights enforcement efforts, including the sentencing last year to 14 years in prison of two Tennessee men who pleaded guilty to spray painting swastikas on a mosque they later destroyed with a fire.

But he also talked about the arrest last month of Somali-born U.S. citizen Mohamed Osman Mohamud on charges he attempted to bomb a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore.

“I make no apologies for the how the FBI agents handled their work in executing the operation that led to Mr. Mohamud’s arrest,” Holder said in the speech.

Undercover FBI agents had provided Mohamud with bomb materials, but he “repeatedly refused to change course” even when reminded that women and children would be at the ceremony, Holder said.  ”Those who characterize the FBI’s activities in this case as ‘entrapment’ simply do not have their facts straight – or do not have a full understanding of the law,” he added.

Even the more moderate Muslims groups the department is now working with are critical of the FBI. Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, told the Washington Post the undercover tactics “divert precious law enforcement resources” and stoke “anti-Muslim sentiments.” But it’s progress that department is now having this debate with groups that aren’t under a law enforcement cloud, which allows for a more meaningful dialogue.

The question is whether the FBI is entrapping these entrapping suspects. The FBI has made a string of arrests after undercover agents helped the suspects plot attacks. Would they have attempted to carry out attacks if the undercover FBI agents hadn’t been helping and encouraging them?

It’s hard to argue that law enforcement should wait to find out.