I BELIEVE the struggle against terrorism and the extremist ideology is now one of the greatest political challenges of our generation. And I believe our most potent weapons in this struggle are our ideas.
Even though they are couched in religious terms, the ideas that drive terrorist groups like JI and al-Qaida are political in nature.
The ideas are based on a distorted and selective interpretation of Islam.
Sheik Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, said recently: ''The extremists' view of Islam as a religion of violence, retribution and war is in complete opposition to the truth of Islam.''
But despite being discredited by mainstream Muslim scholars, the terrorist ideology has attracted a significant following.
The challenge is to confront the ideas that lead rational people into the arms of extremists.
Progress is being made. For example, support for violent extremism is falling in Indonesia.
In 2002, a Pew Research Centre survey found 27 per cent of Indonesians supported suicide bombing. In 2005, that number fell to 15 per cent. And in June, Pew found support for suicide bombing had fallen again to 10 per cent.
And this year's survey shows more than 70 per cent of Indonesians believe violence against civilian targets in order to defend Islam can never be justified.
Sometimes I think there's a notion that extremists are totally alien. And because they reject our world view, they can't really understand the West. On the contrary, they know us intimately.
The terrorists who preach the extremist message are politically much smarter than we give them credit for. They watch their enemy - that's us - very closely.
It will take a concerted campaign from all countries to discredit extremist ideology.
Ultimately, the terrorists want to found a new political order: an Islamic super-state based on the most extreme interpretation of religious Sharia Law. Even though the majority of Muslims reject this ideology, the terrorist narrative wins recruits. It speaks to the frustration of Muslims with the lack of economic and political progress, particularly in the Middle East. And it cleverly draws strength from the tendency of people to turn to religion in times of uncertainty.
But as people search for meaning, spiritual fulfilment, they can easily be misled by utopian ideas packaged as simple solutions.
To defend our open society, I believe we must make some simple, but strong, points against the totalitarian ambitions of the extremists. We should point out what their bleak ideology means in practice. Because what we find is that revolutionary pamphleteers offer little guide to the hard daily tasks of running a society.
We must also recognise and sympathise with the distress many Muslims feel as a result of pressures on their faith.
When a terrorist atrocity takes place, it can all too easily hijack popular perceptions of Islam in the non-Muslim community.
And, tragically, it is more often Muslims who are the victims of terrorism - directly or indirectly, through the negative economic and social impacts that follow.
This reinforces my view that narrowly defining people by their faith alone is a foolish trap. For example, I am an Australian. I am a politician. I am also an Anglican. And I'm a lover of cricket. But why should I be defined as any one of these things - they're all a part of my identity, but none alone is my identity.
In encouraging this debate within the Islamic world, the West faces an emerging dilemma.
In a climate where Muslim communities are under pressure from radical groups, it is hard for what we might consider progressive Muslim voices to be persuasive.
It may be that the more credible voices in the debate are what we in the West would regard as very conservative Muslim groups.
These more traditional and conservative Muslim leaders have theological credibility within their communities. These leaders may not always share the West's interests in pluralism and in the development of liberal institutions. They won't share our views on gender equality, but many of them oppose violence.
I think we must be willing to build on what common ground we can identify if we are to meet the challenge of terrorism.
* Alexander Downer is the Foreign Minister. This is an edited extract of his speech to the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London on Friday.
BUILDING A SOLUTION
* Confronting extremist ideas start with practical efforts. Australia has committed more than $8 billion to counter-terrorism activities since September 11, 2001.
* We have built a global network of relationships to fight terrorism - including with Britain and the U.S. and South-East Asia.
* One of the things we're doing is trying to understand what turns ordinary, earnest men and women into political radicals prepared to commit murder.
* We are promoting regional inter-faith dialogues. These dialogues are helping to bridge what former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid called ''a global crisis of misunderstanding''.
