He said that moderate Muslims must “resist strongly” the taking over of Islam by radical activists, adding: “We look to them to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people.”

In a speech in Rome, Lord Carey also attacked Islamic culture in general, arguing that it was authoritarian, inflexible and underachieving. His speech is certain to damage further relations between Muslims and other communities in Britain. Muslim leaders will interpret it as evidence of the Islamophobia that they claim is endemic in the West.

Lord Carey, who has in the past given his backing to groups such as the Three Faiths Forum, which believe that dialogue rather than attack is the key to improving relations between the three main Abrahamic faiths, also condemned the “glaring absence” of democracy in most Muslim countries. He suggested that they had contributed little of major significance to world culture for centuries.

Lord Carey was speaking as his successor, Dr Rowan Williams, prepares to fly out to New York this weekend for a conference of Christian and Muslim scholars in New York.

The former Archbishop conceded that most Muslims were peaceful people and said they should not be demonised. But he urged Europeans and Americans to resist claims that Islamic states were morally, spiritually and culturally superior.

“Although we owe much to Islam in handing on to the West many of the treasures of Greek thought, the beginnings of calculus, Aristotelian thought during the Dark Ages, it is sad to relate that no great invention has come for many hundred years from Muslim countries.

“This is a puzzle because Muslim peoples are not bereft of brilliant minds. They have much to contribute to the human family and we look forward to the close co-operation that might make this possible.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Forces chief faces new battle - the economy
• Seven days that shook the world
• Icelanders wake up and smell ... the fish