Muslims and the left in Britain have much to celebrate together. The last five years of collaborative campaigning against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been good for the left, good for the Muslim community and also good for democracy in our country.

We can, of course, point out that it is the latest evidence of the truth, accepted by the great majority of the British people, that the terrorist attacks were in large part a product of Blair’s foreign policy, in particular Britain’s participation in the war against Iraq.

I do not believe the Bush-Blair “endless war” is a war on Islam or Muslims as such – after all, it may next move on to Cuba, Korea or Venezuela, as well as Iran. It springs from a different source. But the fact that its innocent victims have to date been overwhelmingly Muslim cannot be dismissed as a “grievance”.

No. Blair’s failure even to begin to address the roots of disaffection and his dismissal of a “grievance” will do nothing to lessen the terrible temptation of terror. Muslims, like everybody else, would want to feel that their government understands their concerns and listens to them. At present, they are ignored or patronised.

What does our alliance stand for? First of all, anti-imperialism. We stand for the equality of peoples and states, we are against any attempt to create new empires, however disguised, and we recognise the right of all peoples to establish the forms of governance that suit them best, on whatever mixture of principles derived from religion or secular thought they desire, bound only by the obligations of international law.

Second, we stand for the equality of individuals, undivided on grounds of race. This too is a principle one can arrive at by either secular or religious reasoning. It is striking that today, for the first time in my memory, a section of the liberal left has abandoned the obligation to stand by the victims of racism in our society and is instead pandering to Islamophobia.

Third, we stand for freedom and civil liberties. At present, it is the Muslim community that bears the main burden of the threat here, with proposals to ban peaceful political organisations, extend the power of the police to detain suspects without charge, close down places of worship and restrict free speech.

But it would be foolish to ignore the lessons of history, which teach that the loss of rights for one group tends to end up as the loss of liberty of all.

More than that it demands that we work together to overcome alienation by addressing the greed and poverty, inequalities and nihilistic individualism that scar our world. Should we do so, the emerging alliance of Muslims and the left worldwide will surely play a central part in the politics of the 21st century.

Muslims and the left in Britain have much to celebrate together. The last five years of collaborative campaigning against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been good for the left, good for the Muslim community and also good for democracy in our country.

We can, of course, point out that it is the latest evidence of the truth, accepted by the great majority of the British people, that the terrorist attacks were in large part a product of Blair’s foreign policy, in particular Britain’s participation in the war against Iraq.

I do not believe the Bush-Blair “endless war” is a war on Islam or Muslims as such – after all, it may next move on to Cuba, Korea or Venezuela, as well as Iran. It springs from a different source. But the fact that its innocent victims have to date been overwhelmingly Muslim cannot be dismissed as a “grievance”.

No. Blair’s failure even to begin to address the roots of disaffection and his dismissal of a “grievance” will do nothing to lessen the terrible temptation of terror. Muslims, like everybody else, would want to feel that their government understands their concerns and listens to them. At present, they are ignored or patronised.

What does our alliance stand for? First of all, anti-imperialism. We stand for the equality of peoples and states, we are against any attempt to create new empires, however disguised, and we recognise the right of all peoples to establish the forms of governance that suit them best, on whatever mixture of principles derived from religion or secular thought they desire, bound only by the obligations of international law.

Second, we stand for the equality of individuals, undivided on grounds of race. This too is a principle one can arrive at by either secular or religious reasoning. It is striking that today, for the first time in my memory, a section of the liberal left has abandoned the obligation to stand by the victims of racism in our society and is instead pandering to Islamophobia.

Third, we stand for freedom and civil liberties. At present, it is the Muslim community that bears the main burden of the threat here, with proposals to ban peaceful political organisations, extend the power of the police to detain suspects without charge, close down places of worship and restrict free speech.

But it would be foolish to ignore the lessons of history, which teach that the loss of rights for one group tends to end up as the loss of liberty of all.

More than that it demands that we work together to overcome alienation by addressing the greed and poverty, inequalities and nihilistic individualism that scar our world. Should we do so, the emerging alliance of Muslims and the left worldwide will surely play a central part in the politics of the 21st century.