"I feel like a Moslem being thrown to the Lions,'' were the opening remarks of visiting Moslem publisher Mr. Idris Mears in a speech to the Hamilton Lions Club last week.

He was not far wrong as the normally docile Lions bombarded him with questions -- demanding an explanation for widely publicised terrorist acts by Moslem fundamentalists.

The visiting Cornish publisher explained such attacks represented an identity crisis for Moslems now in the process of re-establishing an identity for themselves after European and Western cultures had been forced upon them.

Nevertheless, Mr. Mears who was here on a 10-day visit at the invitation of local Islamic groups, praised Bermudians as "fine human beings'' adding that the "seeds of Islam were ready to be planted into Bermuda's fertile soil''.

The Oxford-educated publisher claimed he gave up his Protestant faith for Islam after he met some Moslems at university.

"I recognised in them qualities of what I wanted to be,'' he said. After graduating from Al Azhar university in Cairo where he studied Arabic, Mr.

Mears began publishing academic Islamic texts.

Now he is organising a distribution network for Moslem literature throughout the United States.

His speech to the Lions, entitled "accountability'' put forward the central tenets of the Islamic religion.

Religion in Islam meant "debt'', he said. Each person carried a debt for every moment of their lives. Accountability and submission to God was the essence of Islam, he said.

"Whether we like it or not we have a transaction with God,'' he said But human beings too often allowed self-worship to interfere with worship of their creator, he added.

"We think we are in charge of our own affairs but in fact they are in the hands of God.

"Human beings do not know what reality is,'' he said. "The human being has to be taught what it is to be a human being.'' Usury -- making something out of nothing or gaining without effort was recognised as evil by Moslems, Christians and Jews, he claimed.

Instead, a world order based on finance sowed the germ of disaster, he said.

"Most of society's problems especially in the third world are caused by the root evil of usury.'' Gambling was another evil that was bringing about the breakdown of the social fabric.

"Human beings have to take stock of this matter -- otherwise it will result in increasing social disintegration,'' he warned.

Turning to the issue of an independent Bermuda, he told Bermudians to first break free of the shackles of a money-orientated society.

"People are all slaves of the world finance system. That is not freedom.

Freedom is being able to shape our lives with our own efforts.'' But he added the nature of the Island, its small size and common spirit was conducive to goodness.

"I am very impressed by the quality of human beings I've met here,'' he said.

DEVOUT MOSLEM -- English publisher Mr. Idris Mears spoke to the Hamilton Lions about Islam.