The fact that the Al Qaeda plot to detonate car bombs in London and Glasgow was carried out by doctors working for the National Health Service has shocked the British public far more than the fact that they were Muslims.

The notion that the NHS might have been infiltrated by jihadists from the Middle East is as disturbing as the emergence two years ago of young British Muslim suicide bombers.

In fact, it is more disturbing, not just because doctors are meant to save lives rather than commit mass murder, but because the violation of this inner sanctum of the British way of life threatens the whole idea of integration — which is meant to be the answer to Islamism. The line between integration and infiltration is a thin one.

The NHS is the nearest thing to a religion that the British now have. For half a century the British have convinced themselves that the NHS is the envy of the world. It is — for the third world. And it is the third world’s doctors and nurses who keep alive this socialist cult of security from cradle to grave.

No politician dares to reform the NHS, which is still run by its white-coated medical priesthood. Even Margaret Thatcher, who was fearless with terrorists, quailed before the doctors and nurses. “The NHS is safe in our hands,” she said. But the question has long been: are we safe in the NHS’s hands?

Aneurin Bevan, the man who created this monster, explained how he had persuaded the senior doctors to submit to the state: “I stuffed their mouths with gold.” But training our own doctors is expensive. Today, the agencies that supply the NHS with doctors recruit their staff throughout Africa and Asia. Many are Muslims and, inevitably, some of them are Islamists.

The origins of the eight suspects arrested so far are diverse — Iraq, Jordan, India, Saudi Arabia — but all spent time at NHS hospitals or medical schools. One of them, who drove a blazing Jeep into an airport terminal and set fire to himself, is now being treated for burns that cover 90% of his body in the same hospital that unsuspectingly employed him. If he survives, he will owe his life to his intended victims.

Anybody with medical qualifications has been able to enter Britain with few questions asked. Of the 277,000 doctors in the NHS, some 128,000 — that is nearly four out of 10 — were trained abroad. It was a loophole that should have been obvious, given Al Qaeda’s declared strategy of recruiting highly educated professionals. The cell that launched last week’s attacks is probably not the only one.

After a slow start, the security operation has moved quickly, using information gained from the cell phones that failed to detonate. The net was cast widely enough to catch one suspect in Australia just as he was about to fly to Pakistan. The only Anglican clergyman in Baghdad, Canon White, was apparently warned by an Al Qaeda operative: “He said the people who cure you would kill you.”

What, though, has been the political response to this potentially devastating conspiracy — one of dozens that are believed to be active in Britain alone at any one time?

Gordon Brown’s new government has been eager to contrast itself with Tony Blair. To this end, it has excised three terms from the official vocabulary: “Muslim,” “Islam,” and “the war on terror.” There is to be no mention of the wider context in which Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists operate. The new home secretary, Jacqui Smith, laid down the new doctrine: “Terrorists are criminals who come from all religious backgrounds.” I am sure one or two are Quakers.

Compared to Mr. Blair, Mr. Brown looks like a man in manic denial. But his conservative opponent, David Cameron, is determined to out-deny him.

First, he insisted that the word “Islamist” should be censored from political discourse. Then, after two Muslims were made junior ministers last week, Mr. Cameron promoted Sayeeda Warsi to be a member of his shadow cabinet, with the title of “community cohesion secretary.” Having failed to be elected, she is to be ennobled and will sit in the House of Lords. Ms. Warsi is thus the most senior Muslim in British politics.

Yet Ms. Warsi turns out to hold views that are not only at odds with her party’s, but also with any “community cohesion” except the Islamist kind. She not only opposed the Iraq war, but also welcomed the election of Hamas. She opposes anti-terror laws and rejects the idea that extremism is a problem for British Muslims: “When you say this is something that the Muslim community needs to weed out, or deal with, that is a very dangerous step to take.” Mr. Cameron has taken a dangerous step by handing over his policy on Islam to a person who appears to be part of the problem.

“Don’t mention the war” was the catchphrase of the manic hotelier, Basil Fawlty, played by Monty Python actor, John Cleese, in the BBC comedy series “Fawlty Towers.” While serving his German guests, he goose-stepped around the room.

Now that the war in question is a holy war unleashed against Western civilization, the joke is on us. Jihad may be preached from British pulpits, but the word has gone out from Downing Street: “Whatever else you do, don’t mention the war on terror.”