It is ironic, however, that you yourself have praised some of the most autocratic of Muslim regimes as examples of progress. You proposed Turkey as a positive example of a country that has embraced Islam and democracy. Yet Muslims practice their faith in a climate of fear and intimidation under Turkey’s system of militant secularism. The headscarf for example has been banned from many aspects of public life in Turkey since long before the French adopted their anti-Islamic stance. The army, which reserves the commonly used prerogative of dismissing elected puppet governments, enforces a most austere form of secularism regardless of the wishes of Turkey’s people. You spoke of King Hussein, Prince Hassan and King Abdullah as important names in Islam with whom you have had fellowship over many years. Yet these names were not chosen by the people of Jordan over whom they have ruled for generations as a clan since the British first installed them into power.  Accountable government is sadly lacking and the picture is far worse than you may have thought. What is interesting is that you see these individuals as carrying enlightened and moderate views, yet the majority of Muslims in the Islamic world see them as autocratic and subservient to Western capitals.

You also spoke about conflict and the rise of Islamic opposition to the current regimes and you said that Islam is “in opposition to practically every world religion” including Christianity. You also sought to address the “reasons for Islam’s association with terrorism and death.” You are correct in part because Islam clearly is in conflict across the globe but it is the nature of this conflict, which I believe you have misrepresented.

For example you mentioned Islam’s conflict with Judaism with reference to the violence in Palestine. However, this conflict is not with Judaism for it began with the British occupation of Palestine after the First World war and the colonial design of setting up a Jewish homeland over the heads of the existing population without any reference to their needs or wishes. The British government illegally opened the doors to a flood of European migrants who sought to escape the terrible anti Semitism that prevailed in secular Europe. These Jewish immigrants eventually waged a war of terror first against the British who had armed them and then against the Palestinian population to expel and subdue them. From the inception of the State of Israel – a state for Jews to the exclusion of others - the Muslims and Christians of Palestine have been suffering the daily tyranny of occupation and expulsion from their lands and homes. So now in Palestine Islam is in conflict with Israelis – not in their capacity as Jews who historically had lived alongside Muslims in peace and security for centuries – but in their capacity as occupiers.

You spoke about conflict with Christianity, but Muslims do not blame Christianity for their ills. Rather Muslims identify the secular democracies of the West as engaging in a pernicious and inhumane foreign policy. It is therefore disingenuous to conjure up a picture of Islam and other religions being in violent collision.

Muslims in Britain also take issue, not with Christianity but, with secular democracy for the pervading hedonism and narcissism that have eroded fixed moral standards from all aspects of public and private life in this country. Today’s social mores have nothing to do with Christianity so we cannot blame Christianity for the state of Western societies. Where the Church of England may once have been a moral compass it is now an irrelevance to the vast majority of English people when it comes to societal affairs. It has given ground, diluted its core and has constantly redefined itself within ever decreasing circles. To claim as you do that Western values are founded “on the Christian moral tradition and culture” is perhaps doing a disservice to Christianity. Western values are based on a secular post-reformation culture and have far more to do with the “might is right” and the “ends justifies the means” morality of Niccolo Machiavelli and the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham than they do the teachings of the New Testament or the philosophy of Saint Augustine. The result of releasing societies from a spiritual basis is the rampant materialism and corporate power that have now become the new deities. The challenge for those who do believe that God has a role in society greater than mere remembrance in a church or a mosque is to understand that the main obstacle facing us is not Islam or even Political Islam, but a new and pernicious form of militant secularism.