LET me clear up some confusion which has arisen out of what I said about worldwide terrorism in this column last week.

I certainly did not mean to suggest that all Arabs or Muslims support murderous, suicidal attacks on western targets - though it has to be admitted that some of them do. I said: "There are well-informed, lethally-armed groups of determined murderers in all the Arab countries who want to see the destruction of western civilisation." This is an indisputable truth. And it was to these fanatics I was referring when I said: "They want to bury us."

I am not a racist. I don't even know what the word "racism" means. In fact, I doubt that it can be given any clear meaning at all. You know the old clich, "Some of my best friends are Jews". Well, some of my best friends are blacks, Muslims and Asians. I spent a most enjoyable day last Saturday at Lords in the middle of a host of excited Indians, watching England get stuffed by what, on the day, was a far superior team.

Incidentally, I was accompanied by one of our churchwardens at St Michael's: a jet black West Indian, Alfred Edwards, about six foot eight who is frequently mistaken for Curtly Ambrose. I have dined, at his invitation, at the Cambridge home of the Pakistani Professor of Oriental Studies, Akbar Ahmed, who became a distinguished diplomat for his country.

I spent years teaching RE in a downtown school in Bolton and I was a regular guest at weddings and at the Diwali ceremonies celebrated by the East African Indian immigrants - those thrown out of Uganda by the dictator Idi Amin.

I would say that, if anyone is a racist, the word applies to Amin rather more than to yours truly. But I question whether the word has any meaning beyond the cult of sentimentality and political-correctness. For a start, does anti-racism mean that we should stand for racial equality? That sounds a reasonable notion, but when we examine it, it collapses into incoherence. For people of different races (and of the same race if it comes to that) are not equal. My tall black pal Alfred Edwards might make a good basketball player, but I couldn't since I'm only five foot six.

But I am reasonably good at academic philosophy and I play the piano a bit - attributes which Alfred in all his glory would not lay claim to.

So, if we're to talk about racial equality, are we simply talking about equality of opportunity? That's not a reality either, for there is no equality of opportunity. Perhaps we should work for it until there is such a thing then? That wouldn't work either. Because in the real world some people are cleverer, more talented and more industrious than others.

Does the injunction to be anti-racist mean simply that I should not be rude or discourteous to people of other races? Well, I hope I am never consciously discourteous towards anyone. In short, much of what gets dressed up in all the fashionable jargon of racism and anti-racism just boils down to the need for good manners.

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.