In The Argus of March 26, I looked in vain for news of Lord Carey's address in Rome, although not to cover such an offensive speech was probably the wiser decision.

There is much to criticise in what he said but also some things to agree with, although with more charity than he demonstrates.

Of more than 20 nation states in the Arab League, not one of them has democracy in our Western sense of the word.

This suggests Islamic nations are content with tyrants (Iraq) or with pretty despotic rulers (Saudi Arabia) but it might equally be that democracy is a system which is inimical to the Muslim temperament.

I wonder if the resistance to the Coalition Forces in Iraq is to the foreign occupation of their country or to being forced to accept an equally foreign system of government.

I am particularly angered that, in the context of Islam, the archbishop should use phrases like "authoritarian", "undemocratic", "inflexible" and "resistant to modernity".

His address was delivered in Rome, close to the seat of the most authoritarian, undemocratic, inflexible and feudalistic branch of his own religion.

Doesn't one of the gospels warn us against criticising men with splinters in their eyes when we have beams in our own?

It is clearly difficult for us to try to comprehend a culture so very different from ours. But that should not bring all dialogue to an end. Statements such as Dr Carey's, even if selectively quoted, are patently unhelpful.

One can only be grateful that he is now merely a loose cannon and no longer leader of the Anglican Communion.

-(Dr) M B J Johnson, Brighton