So why has his message failed? BBC News Online spoke to leading British Muslims to find out.

Ahmed Versi, editor of Muslim News, said he recognised the views expressed in the BBC survey as consistent with those of his readers.

"They have difficulty believing what Tony Blair says when the reality, since the Terrorism Bill, is that the Muslim community is the target," he said.

Mr Versi said there were several reasons why British Muslims simply did not believe Mr Blair.

"Of the 20-odd organisations prohibited under the act, 16 to 18 are Muslim groups.

We always believed that this is a war against Islam, there is a hidden agenda against Islam Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed

"Of course some we agree are terrorists but some we consider to be liberation groups.

"It is also interesting that there are no Jewish or Hindu terrorism groups among them."

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which represents the UK's 1.5 million Muslims, says there is a "growing perception" in mosques up and down the country that the war on terror is becoming a war on Islam.

They want to know why Israel is not being attacked for what it is doing in Palestine, or the Russian president Vladimir Putin for the war in Chechnya, he said.

"It's double standards."

Homes raided

Mr Versi said Muslims were disappointed with the way the British Government had reacted to its nationals interned in the American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay.

There is a feeling, he says, that "if they were not Muslim, they would have put pressure on the US Government to put them on trial or release them".

Many of his readers had had their homes raided by police or MI5, he said, and there was dismay last year during race riots in Oldham that they were immediately condemned by Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Many do believe Osama bin Laden was involved but they remain sceptical Ahmed Versi

This mistrust, he says, explains the other overwhelming statistic from the poll for BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Around 70% of Muslims questioned did not believe al-Qaeda was behind the 11 September atrocities.

"Because of their own experiences, British Muslims don't believe the mainstream media," Mr Versi said.

"Many do believe Osama bin Laden was involved but they remain sceptical.

"Why, for example, was Syria only allowed to see a censored version of Iraq's dossier on chemical weapons?

"It's as if they [the British and Americans] don't trust Muslims."

The MCB spokesman agreed.

"The Muslim community thinks it is imperative that whoever did it is brought to trial.

"It is not that we necessarily believe anyone else is responsible, but there is a deep suspicion that this is being used as an excuse by America to attack Iraq."