A deadly paradox at the heart of western culture This naivety is lethal. The prime minister is mortified that, despite his charm offensive among Arab states, he is losing the propaganda war in the Muslim world. His line is that violence is nothing to do with Islam, that no decent Palestinian supports terror, and that resolving Palestinian grievances and so bringing peace to the Middle East is the key to eradicating world terrorism. This is not, he says, a war by the West on Islam. True. But war has nevertheless been declared on the West in the name of Islam. Although most Muslims have distanced themselves from terror, the majority also appear to think Osama Bin Laden pressed all the right buttons in his television broadcast, in which, let us remind ourselves, he demanded the destruction of Israel. In Britain, senior clerics in the International Muslim Organisation said the attacks on America were "regrettable", but added that it was up to western nations to change their foreign policy or risk similar terrorist attacks. Which came dangerously close to blaming America for the terror visited upon it and implicitly endorsing future violence. Worse still, Abdul-Rehman Saleem, a spokesman for the extremist Al-Muhajiroun group, was reported to have said anyone who assassinated Tony Blair and the cabinet would not be punished under Islam but praised. Other statements made by some Muslims that have clearly incited violence have simply been ignored by British prosecuting authorities. A meeting of prominent Christians and Muslims which was due to take place yesterday at the East London mosque to discuss citizenship was postponed after the mosque decided it could not guarantee the safety of participants. It appeared to fear that violent extremists might view this meeting as yet another example of Christianity muscling onto Muslim territory. In its small way, this little cameo of terror illustrates the core issue at the heart of the Islamic problem with the West. It is the issue of who rules. Certainly, Islam preaches vital precepts of peace and tolerance. But as the great Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis has noted, Islam divides the world into the sphere of the faithful and the sphere of infidels, and says that conflict will never cease until the whole world is brought into the sphere of the faithful - echoing what Bin Laden said in his broadcast. As Samuel Huntington observes in his seminal and brilliant book, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, history has been marked by an epic struggle between two religions, Christianity and Islam, which both believed they represented the truth for the whole world, and which defined the biggest threat to themselves in terms of the other. What is happening now is yet another phase of that struggle, initiated by a resurgence of Islamic feeling. That resurgence is based on a pathological feeling of inferiority and insecurity - a resentment and fear of the western civilisation that has dominated the world for 300 years despite its (to Islamic eyes) palpable decadence, and whose apparently unstoppable momentum of modernity is such a threat to Islam itself. And this is why Israel is so central - but not in the way Blair seems to think. Israel is not only a symbol of those despised and feared western values but is founded on what Muslims believe is their territory. So Israel is seen as the embodiment of the West's threat to the integrity of Islam. That's why the belief that a (in principle, desirable) two-state solution to the Israel crisis would secure Arab support for the coalition is extraordinarily facile. The essence of the Muslim grievance here is the existence of Israel itself. That is why Yasser Arafat rejected Israel's offer of a fledgling state and launched the intifada in response. But Blair, along with some advisers to President George W Bush, doesn't seem to see it that way. He thinks solving the Middle East crisis will end terror. But this is an upside-down argument. It is only by ending terror that the Middle East crisis will be solved. Yet how can this be done if America and Britain actually ally themselves with states sponsoring terror in the Middle East, such as Syria, Iran or Saudi Arabia? There is now a real danger, as Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has warned, that Israel will be seen as expendable and a terrorist state will be imposed on its border - as the price for keeping together the coalition against terror. But even if the Middle East crisis were solved tomorrow, the threat would remain. For the issue is the hegemony of the West. This puts western Muslims, who are overwhelmingly decent, peaceful, law-abiding people, in a terrible quandary. For it's not enough to renounce terror. They must renounce also the Islamic world view. In other words, they must decide whether they are prepared to be a minority religion in the West like the Jews, the Sikhs, the Hindus and others: that is, treated with respect, welcomed for their contribution but accepting that their own culture must exist under the overarching framework of the host culture. But the West embodies an astonishing paradox. It is run by liberal imperialists busy pushing their own values down the throats of non-western peoples on the grounds that freedom and democracy are superior to the alternatives and must be imposed on the whole world. Yet these very same people hate and despise western culture as racist and colonialist and want to replace it altogether by a multicultural free-for-all. So the West manages - fantastically - to combine a gross illiberalism and intolerance towards other cultures with a death-wish directed at its own. Is it any wonder that Muslims despise the West as much as they fear it? The solution is to turn this paradox inside out. The West should end its "liberal" imperialism and stop telling other cultures how to behave. Instead, it must vigorously defend and reassert liberal values on its home ground. That means, first and foremost, a reassertion of Christianity and an end to the craven apologetics and moral and cultural relativism of the Church of England. It means schools should abandon multiculturalism and start teaching English culture and British history. It means immigrants should be required to learn English. It means asserting cultural norms over group rights and over the doctrine that every lifestyle choice is as valid as any other. It means arresting those who preach violence. And it means understanding that support for the Jews is pivotal. Muslims aren't the only people in danger since September 11. Attacks on synagogues and Jews have risen steeply, inflamed by the loathsome belief that Jews are at the root of the problem of terror. Indeed, the preposterous argument is even being aired that, alone of the peoples of the earth, the Jews of Israel must not be allowed to defend themselves against terrorism. This is the opportunity to encourage moderate western Muslims, those who appreciate the benefits of living in a liberal society. The problem is whether an Islamic reformation is actually possible. The war against terror is the point of decision.