We are told that radical Islam is the most dynamic political movement since the fall of Communism. If that is true then much of the discussion about this phenomenon is about as intelligent as people seeing the Berlin Wall coming down in 1990 and complaining about the noise. Any critique of radical Islam is seen as crusading from the Muslims and racism from the liberal intelligensia.

Professor John Gray's book: 'Al Qaeda and what it means to be modern' is a refreshhing approach to the situation which I hope will be read widely by all sides of the argument.

Gray is Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and he views this subject from the platform of politics, philosophy and economic theory.

It is his belief that Al Qaeda is a modern movement which has forced onto Islam ideas from 19th Century European anarchists. It is a new phenomenon in that it uses modern technology, but more importantly that its field of operation is global as opposed to territorial like the IRA or ETA.

The most fascinating part of the book is his outline of Enlightenment thinking, focusing on the Positivists who tried to create a secular Catholicism with sacraments and vestments � the leaders of which all ended up in mental asylums. It is, however, these thinkers who influenced Communism and the Nazis in their belief that it was OK to use military and industrial force to 'modernise' the world - killing innocent individuals in the belief that the new world would be better for it.

The founders of Al Qaeda were all educated in the west and applied these same principles to Islam to create the belief that it was acceptable to target civilians if the fear and death brought about a purer Islamic world.

The main weakness of the book is that Gray doesn't examine the moderate Islamic world. Muslim leaders condemn Al Qaeda but, in the same breath, say it is happening because of the persecution of Muslims in Palestine and Chechnya. Is that really unequivocal condemnation?

John Gray gives a powerful and persuasive assessment of the state of our world today with a very comprehensive, critique of the follies of American foreign policy.

What I would now like to see are peoples views on the way forward for the world our children will grow up in. This will mean abandoning the old constraints of Western Imperialism and also of political correctness � the morality of Imperialism which, like religion, assumes one set of values will be the same for everyone.

We are all aware of the injustices of Pax Americana, but has anyone the foresight to imagine living under Pax Al Qaeda? At the beginning of the 20th Century Islam was lampooned as a dead fatalistic desert religion whilst Anglo Saxon thinkers were forcing their will upon the world.

At the beginning of this Century it is our thinkers who have retreated into fatalism whilst radical Islam is gaining momentum.