LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron continues to pleasantly surprise me. I had expected his premiership to be somewhat more passive when Britain's last election produced a coalition government. I anticipated a more centrist governing style from the Cameron administration resulting from his partnership with Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats.

Instead, the opposite seems to be true. While his record is far from perfect, Prime Minister Cameron seems intent on advocating his conservative values and translating them into tangible policy. His attempts to aggressively reverse Britain's deep budgetary deficit are case in point.

This week, Cameron once again showed his mettle. In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, the Prime Minister boldly declared that "under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream." His speech was riddled with an honest and open appraisal of Islamist extremism, and the failures of Western society to confront it confidently.

Even hearing the words "Islamist extremism" from a Western political leader of Mr. Cameron's stature is refreshing in itself; our debate about Islamism and how we exert our liberal values has degraded substantially. We have formed camps of political opinion with no ability to dialogue.

Some on the left willfully ignore the acts of Islamist terrorism. They shove plugs into their ears, scream "I can’t hear you!", and refuse to see the terrible trend. Extremism has swept dozens of countries the world over.

Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano quite famously replaced the word "terrorism" with "man-made disasters", in an effort to curb the "politics of fear".

This is simple foolishness. Ronald Reagan did not end the Cold War by calling the Soviet Union  "those we have some disagreements with": he called them an "evil empire". Let us all at least have enough confidence in our liberal democratic values to assert them when we speak publicly about Islamist extremism.

Some go further, abandoning ideology as an explanation for terrorism and instead blaming poverty. This is factually untrue. It is reasoning based on intellectual laziness, and the ideology that all of the world's problems result from poverty. No one doubts the urgency of modern poverty worldwide - but those committing terrorist acts or financing terrorist organizations within the West itself include many highly educated, middle class Muslims. They are the sons and daughters of immigrants, and they had greater opportunities than their parents ever did.

Simultaneously, there are too many on the right who identify Islam itself as the problem. These voices also exist on the left. When Bill Maher was asked why Americans avoid jokes about Islam, he responded "because they (Muslims) are violent." This isn’t just factually incorrect. It harms the West's relationship with those who should be our closest allies against Islamist extremism: moderate, modern Muslims the world over. Never forget that everyone suffers at the hands of extremism, including the millions of Muslims who face the tyranny of Islamist regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Gaza, and elsewhere. Devout, peaceful Muslims are not our enemies.

This is why the protests in Egypt inspire hearts in the West. I remain skeptical of what the outcome of the Egypt riots will be. Like others, I worry about the horrifying possibility of a new regime in Cairo founded on the Muslim Brotherhood. But I have no doubt in my mind that many thousands of Egyptians want a genuine liberal democracy, the greatest form of government the world has ever known. Democracy is and should be a timeless human legacy, and not one limited to the bastions of liberty in the Western world.

Refusing to identify Islamist extremism is an act of appeasement, plain and simple. We can attack this threat to our values without falling into the pit of bigotry. David Cameron was right to do so in his speech to the Munich Security Conference. He was also right to call for "muscular liberalism": a willingness to assert our liberal values in the face of illiberal ones. This means screening and denying those new immigrants who have clearly identified backgrounds of extremism. It means integrating new immigrant communities into our broader society: we must embrace multiracialism and new cultures while also refusing to compromise on our core liberal values. It means refusing to partner with organizations who embrace or tolerate extremism.

It means leaving the prison of political correctness to shame those who advocate cultures of violence and repression, no matter what their skin colour or creed. We need to make it clear that there are lines that cannot be crossed. We cannot tolerate the selling of women into slavery through forced marriage. We cannot tolerate female genital mutilation, or so called "honour killings". These are all crimes of the highest degree, and should not be tolerated no matter what culture you come from.

Multiculturalism has not totally failed us. But it has in some way failed our values. Long live the age of muscular liberalism: may we never again tolerate the abhorrent and intolerable.