It is somewhat ironic that the Pope has got himself in the ever simmering water of Muslim public opinion by trying to link religion and reason, two things that are the definition of mutual exclusion. Any reasonable examination of religion is bound to fail, for no religion answers the big question of live, the universe and everything - they merely push the question further out. Any solution that proposes a god or similar being but fails to answer (or even question) where this being came from is quite clearly not a complete explanation. And any rational thinker who settles for a partial explanation when better exist is clearly not using rigourous standards of rationality.

Of course this issue also nicely revitalises the lack of tolerance of free speech in much of the Islamic world, last seen after the Danes got their pencils out. And this is where the real problem lies - the rather grandstanding 'class of civilisations'. How can a society where free speech, secular government and religious freedom communicate with one that limits the freedoms of its citizens, frowns on secularism (with the notable exception of Turkey, thanks to the good Ataturk) and indeed despises the godlessness of the West?

There's no easy answer. Imperialism won't help - no occupied people welcome their conquering, no matter how good their intentions, and our actions are easily perverted into a seeming crusade against Islam. Nor can we hold our heads too high - while the Islamic world was making great strides in science and gave religious freedoms to those in their cities the West was busy with religious persecution and crawling step by step from the Dark Ages. Further, it has taken us centuries to rise from theocracies to representative government, and as the US proves irrational religion still has an immense effect on government.

And so we have the problem of our age. Can our society survive and prosper as international boundaries fall and immigration fills our cities with not only those who seek a new life and are willing to join and contribute, but those who bring their own prejudices and standards and attempt to build their own citadels amongst us? As John Reid was told the other day (in a lovely example of proving someone's point for them): “How dare you come into a Muslim area?” The point of multi-cultarism was never to ghettoise a country; it was celebrate difference while remaining a whole. And if people believe it's more important to be Muslim than to be British then we have a rift that cannot be healed, for how can a society survive when some of its members let its laws and conventions be but a secondary interest?