The former head of the Anglican Church, George Carey, has incensed Muslims in Britain after he accused Arab and North African leaders of presiding over authoritarian regimes that had made no great inventions for centuries.
In a lecture given in Rome late Thursday, Carey also said critical scholarship of Islam had declined during the past 500 years and that not enough moderate Muslim leaders were condemning suicide bombers, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
"Frankly, one is dismayed by Lord Carey's comments," Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said Friday.
"One is surprised to find Lord Carey recycling the same old religious prejudice in the 21st Century."
Carey, whose lecture in Rome came on the eve of a seminar of Christian and Muslim scholars in New York, said: "Throughout the Middle East and North Africa we find authoritarian regimes with deeply entrenched leadership, some of which rose to power at the point of a gun and are retained in power by massive investment in security forces.
"Whether they are military dictatorships or traditional sovereignties, each ruler seems committed to retaining power and privilege," added Carey, who stepped down as Archbishop of Canterbury, head of 70 million Anglicans worldwide, in 2002.
Regarding the study of Islam, Carey said that "during the past 500 years critical scholarship has declined, leading to strong resistance to modernity".
He added that it was "sad to relate that no great invention has come for many hundred years from Muslim countries.
"This is a puzzle, because Muslim people 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," the former archbishop said.
Carey did note, however, that the West owed much to Islam for passing on "many of the treasures of Greek thought, the beginnings of calculus (and) Aristotelian thought".
Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Federation of Muslim Organisations in the English city of Leicester where 40,000 Muslims are based, said Carey had fallen prey to the campaign tactics of British racists.
"His understanding is very poor and people are going to see the whole thing in a light which will portray him as a person who is ignorant in the true faith of Islam."
Carey meanwhile said that more moderate Muslims needed to speak out against suicide bombings to stop radicals hijacking Islam.
"Sadly, apart from a very few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people," Carey said.
"We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs and enter a martyr's reward."
Moghal reacted with fury.
"That is nonsense. We condemn suicide bombers, we go on radio, on television, we have made statements. What more can we do?
"We cannot be responsible for the criminal actions of others -- they are not under our control," he said