Akbar Ahmed: What's fundamentalist about wanting to live in dignity?

Visiting the UK from the US is an unsettling experience. One gets a feeling of deja vu. It is like seeing a blockbuster Hollywood film on "Islamic Terror" being remade for a UK audience on English sets, with an English cast. The police are not quite as fat and drive smaller vehicles, but the emotions and prejudices are the same.

We hear a chorus of voices demanding total attention to security issues, while ignoring the sensitive topics of human rights and civil liberties. Distorted and misleading terms are dropping into use which tend to define Islam as inherently violent. "Islamism" has become the preferred phrase in the UK. Growing Islamophobia is spilling into the non-stop television discussions and newspaper articles.

The response from British Muslims has also felt familiar. Muslim leaders began repeating pointlessly that Islam was a "religion of peace", a claim that the images from Glasgow airport and London mocked. They, like Muslim leaders in the US after 9/11, were at a loss to describe what was occurring in their community and slipped into platitudes, confirming perceptions that they were out of touch.

Muslims writing books confessing how they trained in Islamic terror but have now seen the light and converted to good Christian values echo similar arguments in the US. The media's promotion of such figures has driven perceptions that Islam is violent because if "insiders" seem to say so, it must be true.

The vast majority of British Muslims seem to be in a state of shock, neither trusting their own leaders nor those of the nation. Speaking to British Muslims during my trip, I sensed and heard anger in the community. I found myself again caught up in arguing for the dialogue of civilisations against the loud voices arguing for the clash of civilisations.

Now we hear reports that Muslims are becoming radicalised in university campuses. For me, the examples of two students who were contemporaries at the London School of Economics in the mid-1990s sum up the complexity of the problem. One, Omar Shaikh, became a terrorist, involved in the killing of the US journalist, Daniel Pearl. The other, Amineh Hoti, became the first director of the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations.

We need to understand what makes one move in a radical direction and the other pursue an approach of dialogue and understanding. That is the challenge that faces Muslim parents, who need to encourage their children to maintain their cultural integrity while prompting them to fully integrate in Britain's cultural, social and intellectual life. Leaders and commentators also need to stop viewing Muslims as a monolith.

I was recently asked to give a statement before an All-Party Committee on terrorism at the House of Commons. I based my statement on my recent research, during which I travelled throughout the Muslim world, visiting the Middle East, south Asia, and far east Asia, scientifically questioning the Muslim communities in each region. There was both bad and good news in the dealings between the West and the world of Islam.

The bad news for the West was that those it identified as "fundamentalists" were now on the ascendant. Its potential allies, the "moderates", were on the ropes. People across the Muslim world feel a deep sense of anger and despair at the problems that confront them. When we asked people what the number one threat to the Muslim world was, a strong majority in every country said: "Western negative perceptions of Islam."

If Muslims around the world think this is their biggest problem, the good news is that it is possible to combat it. Simple dialogue backed by a committed strategy for bridge building can make a difference. The vast majority of the so-called "fundamentalists" simply want to live in honour and dignity and are not violent. There are short-term symbolic steps that will bring down the temperature. Brown's unwillingness to identify terrorism with Muslims was encouraging. These steps have to be followed by long-term, substantial initiatives reaching across religious divisions.

Despite the recent gloom, I was encouraged by some of the work being done here. In Liverpool, I was met by its bishop, James Jones. The bishop is spearheading a campaign to restore Britain's oldest mosque. This is a powerful example of a prominent Christian reaching out to the Islamic community.

What the UK must learn from the US experience is not to overreact in anger and further alienate Muslims. With the Prime Minister talking of winning hearts and minds, a meaningful relationship with the Muslim world is possible.

Professor Akbar Ahmed is the chair of Islamic studies at American University, Washington DC