The recent suicide bombing in Israel by a British Muslim touched off a debate about the loyalty of immigrants to the Crown. The subtext is whether Muslim citizens can really be trusted to stand by the country in which they have been raised and educated, often with state assistance.

In fact, there has been widespread discomfort with the notion of young Muslim radicals who have been born and brought up in Britain going off to fight against western interests in places like Afghanistan, Kashmir, Yemen and now Israel. Even before 9/11, Muslims often faced discrimination because most of them seemed to resist integration into the mainstream. For instance, in 2001, the unemployment rate in Britain for Bangladeshis was nearly 25 per cent and 16 per cent for Pakistanis compared with 5.4 per cent for white people, according to a Labour Force Survey.

Even when they found work, they earned less than other ethnic groups: more than 80 per cent of Bangladeshi and Pakistani households earned less than half the national average. A survey conducted in 2002 found that men from this background had an average take-home pay of #182 against #332 for white men. On the other hand, men of Indian origin earned around the same as their white counterparts did.

One reason for this wide disparity is that Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims work in sectors that pay lower wages, often finding jobs in northern textile mills on the brink of liquidation, or in restaurants. Another reason is their poor language skills. Finally (and disastrously), according to a cabinet office study, 25 per cent of Bangladeshis and 20 per cent of Pakistanis have no marketable skills.

But before we jump to conclusions about religious bias, the same cabinet Office study also makes the point that Muslims of Middle Eastern origins do better than Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. Oddly, Indian Muslims also do better than their other subcontinental brethren in the UK. How much these variations are due to religious or cultural factors is a matter for speculation, but one fact is clear: Muslims, particularly from South Asia, find it harder than most other groups to fit into the western mould, clinging to their ethnic and religious identity with a tenacity that would be admirable were it not so harmful to these people themselves.

In a sense, this is a chicken and egg situation: many Muslims maintain that their alienation is a result of discrimination, while white Brits find these immigrants and their descendants standoffish and reluctant to shed any of their customs and accept any elements of the western lifestyle. Men often grow long, untrimmed beards while women do not leave their homes without the hijab. In the workplace, both demand time off to pray and insist on fasting in Ramadan.

This public display of religion puts off most Brits, and employers prefer to hire people who do not repel prospective clients and customers. The fact is that a ferocious beard or hijab behind a shop counter is not a very good advertisement for a shop or a product in Britain.

Another factor leading to lower and less paid employment among Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims is that only 11 per cent of this group are graduates as against 22 per cent for Indians and Africans. This fact is ascribed to the fact that while Indian and African women generally work, their Pakistani and Bangladeshi sisters do not. This in turn leads to higher incomes in the first group, and therefore more money for education. Also, working women are more likely to help their children with their homework, and motivate them to do better than uneducated women who stay at home.

Apart from the purely religious and cultural aspects of the problem, there is a general perception that male Muslims are a danger to society. This fear has been reinforced by the recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, but well before this attack, people like Mullah Hamza al-Masri have been preaching violence at Finsbury Park Mosque for years. Al Qaeda's assault on the West has firmly cemented the image of the mad mullah in public perception.

A month after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, Marc Champion, a Wall Street Journal reporter, talked to several Muslim extremists in the UK. One of them, Abdul Rehman, a well-to-do young man with a good education and job, described being in a training camp in Pakistan where he spent three months in 1999 with "local Mujahideen preparing to fight for the 'liberation' of Kashmir from India. The training ... included the use of small arms, artillery and explosives". This was followed by 'advanced training' in a camp in Afghanistan two years later.

The involvement of young Muslims with terrorist groups is an alarming development for most Britons, who see this as clear evidence that these violent radicals are acting against their national interests in different parts of the world. And if a suicide bomber can strike in Tel Aviv, what will stop his fellows from doing the same in Manchester?

These fears and doubts make it even more difficult for the vast majority of Muslims, who are peaceful souls seeking only to make a decent living for themselves and their families. As it is, they labour under the huge handicap imposed by their refusal to integrate; the added burden of the words and actions of a handful of extremists adds immeasurably to their problems.

But beyond these social and economic concerns, we need to analyse the reasons behind the backwardness of Pakistani Muslims and their descendants in Britain. What makes them behave in ways that are so unacceptable here, making them virtual pariahs in a very tolerant society?

When the British ruled India, Muslims isolated themselves by refusing to learn English and accept modern education, thus allowing Hindus a virtual monopoly in government jobs and commerce. After partition, Indian Muslims fell into the same trap, refusing to send their children to Hindi schools. And now in Britain, despite the fact that they have chosen to settle here, Pakistanis are unable or unwilling to take the opportunities available to them and their children.

The key to social change is gender equality. Britons are appalled at the way Muslim men of Pakistani descent generally treat their wives and daughters. Cases of forced marriages regularly make the headlines; and voluminous veils and hijab are an oddity as well as the targets of jibes. The inability of workers to socialize with their colleagues after work adds to the reputation of Pakistani Muslims as sullen, unfriendly people.

Until this community manages to break the shackles of tradition, it will continue to struggle at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder in Britain.