THE former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has come in for a lot of hate mail for his criticisms of Islam. What did he say to land himself so deep in the doghouse?

He said that Muslim civilisation has not contributed effectively to world development over the last 500 years; and he said that all Muslims should condemn terrorism.

Before we consider the rights and wrongs of these claims, I think it's important to note one aspect of modern life that is to be deplored and it is this: it is rarely asked whether a particular statement is true, but rather whether it will "be offensive" to some perceived minority. What makes matters worse is that this mealy-mouthed cop out goes along with an insistence that we have free speech. But where is free speech if one is not allowed to speak the truth? Is it all right to tell lies, then, so long as your lies are not "offensive"?

As it happens, there is much in what Dr Carey said. Islamic civilisation enjoyed a golden age around 900 years ago when much of Christian Europe was moribund. It was the Muslims who developed mathematics at that time: "algebra" is an Arabic word. It was also Muslims who rediscovered the lost or neglected masterpieces of ancient Greek thought. Dr Carey also praised those aspects of Muslim morality which stress loyalty, modesty, fidelity, and family values.

Dr Carey is no enemy of Islam. He has long worked for greater understanding between Christianity and Islam. Why do we forget that the greatest service a good friend can offer is constructive criticism? I have lost count of the number of times that friends of mine have taken me on one side and said, "Now look, Peter, you're making a right B**** of..." - whatever it might be.

There are two responses to this sort of straight talking. I can either take the criticism on board as well-meant from a person who has my best interests at heart and proceed to discuss it with him; or I can go into a corner and sulk. Dr Carey's critics have gone into a prolonged sulk.

You would be a blind fool - or, more likely, in the pernicious grip of that edifice of institutionalised lying called political-correctness - to deny that Muslims have been and are at fault. You would be similarly stupid or perverse if you tried to argue that Christians have never been at fault. I'm not first of all concerned about whether what Dr Carey has said turns out to be true. I just think it deplorable that some should think he had no right, in a sane and moderate way, to air his views. Contrast the mass media's craven obsequiousness before Islam with the open season which it always declares on Christianity and Judaism.

I've lost count of the times I've seen in the media the most scurrilous attacks on Jesus Christ: that he was a phoney who never worked miracles or rose from the dead; that he had a homosexual affair with St John and so on. All these vicious slurs are allowed and slating Our Saviour is par for the course. Imagine, though, the outcry if anyone were to suggest that Mohammed had been an illiterate liar, a womaniser and a drunkard? You wouldn't have to go that far to be damned all over the papers. All you have to do to be shouted down is to make any sort of critical remark, however reasonable, about the beliefs and practices of Muslims. The idea that there is free speech in Britain today is itself a lie.

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange