In the months leading up to the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, Muslims in the West united to oppose the war. Whereas members of other nations were divided in their stance according to individual beliefs or temperaments (some thinking it an overdue intervention against a genocidal regime, others fearing a dangerous precedent in the absence of unanimous support at the United Nations), the Muslims had no doubts: the West must not interfere in the internal affairs of Muslim countries.

It was a predictable attitude and had two causes. Large-scale settlement from a distant culture in the land of another always defies assimilation and transplants an alien identity into the new land. Secondly, almost all the Muslims here are Sunnis, from the 90 per cent majority sect of Islam, and