But many experts warn that, far from improving domestic security, such policies could seriously imperil it.

The first lesson to be learned from the British intelligence success is that the crucial tip that alerted British authorities to the ambitious bomb plot came from a law-abiding member of Britain's own 1.5 million Muslim community.

The overwhelming majority of American Muslims are not merely law-abiding citizens but strongly patriotic. Lynne Verner noted in the Seattle Times Wednesday, "Muslim groups are front and center with denunciations of jihadists and with outdoor rallies to show their support for America."

Revolutionary theorists like Mao Zedong, the architect of China's communist revolution, have always understood that the way for tiny revolutionary groups to succeed is to be able to polarize politics so that they enjoy the sympathy or tolerance of far larger social groups who have been alienated from wider society.

By contrast, the greatest weapon that can be applied prevent jihadis from recruiting freely and operating with impunity in Muslim communities is the law-abiding values of the vast majority of Muslim citizens and the loyalty they have for their country. This was the factor that led to the foiling of the bomb plot.

Second, the key to unraveling the plot after the tip off was patient, detailed police and intelligence work. Charles Pena, a senior fellow at the U.S. Homeland Security Institute told UPI that the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and the National Security Agency's warrentless surveillance program would not have uncovered the British plot.

The war against terror, which Pena calls the "un-war," has to be fought primarily "not with military force or large armies but through good old fashioned police work and productive intelligence sharing," he said.

Third, Pena pointed out, "The single most important issue is probably how the Muslim population in any country is assimilated into wider society."

Some analysts have argued that toleration for hate-rhetoric and the failure to prosecute it empowers extremists by giving them more standing among young people in their communities. This may partially explain why opinion polls among British Muslims show much higher levels of approval and support for extremist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas than similar polls among American Muslims have done.

But also, in most major nations of Western Europe, job creation has remained relatively low over the past decade and a half while welfare benefits are generous and easy to get. By contrast, in the United States, job creation, especially of low-paying entry level jobs for young people, has been very impressive, but unemployment benefits are relatively less generous, and more limited in their duration.

As a result, some analysts argue, the potential pool of alienated, frustrated young Muslims with time on their hands is much smaller in the United States than in some European countries. It is striking that the four young British Muslims who carried out suicide bomb attacks on the London transportation system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people apart from themselves, came from a tight-knit community in the North of England with high unemployment levels.

"The lesson for American Muslims is not to fall into the same trap as Muslims in Europe," Pena said. "The more Muslims in any society are separated from the wider community, the more likely it is that they will be susceptible to radicalization."

But Pena also urged U.S. authorities not to make the mistake of radicalizing Muslims in the wider community targeting them indiscriminately. "Unfortunately, President Bush's use of the term "Islamo-fascists' probably did not help," he said.

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