Oral cowardice
PM Gordon Brown, in his first comprehensive interview last week with a journalist, specifically avoided uttering the I-word - Islam. I will say it for him, just as all British people know, Islamic terrorism! There are no Jewish terrorists, or Christian terrorists, or Buddhist terrorists, or even atheist terrorists (that's a novel concept), but there are definitely Islamic terrorists, and so far they have deliberately killed ca. 60 British citizens on 7/7/05 and hundreds more have been saved by mere chance.
That doesn't mean that all Muslims are terrorists, of course not. But it is even sillier to deny that the terrorists with whom Britain and the West are engaged in a war, that the new UK Head of Security Admiral Stevens says will take another 10-15 years, are Islamic terrorists.
We are told that Islam is a religion of peace. I dispute that, based on the evidence all around us. No doubt there are peaceful elements within Islam, but all Islamic societies are beset with violence, for example, Bangladesh, Algeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc. For example, the sieges in Tripoli, Lebanon, at the Nahr el-Barad camp and in Islamabad, Pakistan, at the Red Mosque, are typical violent clashes that pit the forces of extremist Islam against the secular Governments of these countries. And wherever there is a border with other faiths, such as Christianity in Lebanon and the Phillipines, Judaism in Israel, and Hinduism in India, there are violent conflicts. The Islamic world is not only the most violent, it is also one of the most backward, poor and primitive areas in the world.
The worst war that is currently taking place in the world is the Sunni-Shia sectarian violence in Iraq, where ca. 100 civilians are blown up every day. This is quite independent of the American presence and the former Iraq war, and is a reversion to the ages old Shia-Sunni rift, that long predates such recent phenomena. It is next to impossible for these two groups to tolerate each other, and the best thing to do is for the US to withdraw and let them fight it out. The idea of a democracy in Iraq is pie in the sky and the elected Iraqi Govt. of Maliki is fast unraveling.
Gordon Brown is not the first to be stricken with this particular form of oral cowardice. But, Brown's failure to be accurate in his description of the terrorist threat to Britain does not herald well his ability to deal with that threat.
That doesn't mean that all Muslims are terrorists, of course not. But it is even sillier to deny that the terrorists with whom Britain and the West are engaged in a war, that the new UK Head of Security Admiral Stevens says will take another 10-15 years, are Islamic terrorists.
We are told that Islam is a religion of peace. I dispute that, based on the evidence all around us. No doubt there are peaceful elements within Islam, but all Islamic societies are beset with violence, for example, Bangladesh, Algeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc. For example, the sieges in Tripoli, Lebanon, at the Nahr el-Barad camp and in Islamabad, Pakistan, at the Red Mosque, are typical violent clashes that pit the forces of extremist Islam against the secular Governments of these countries. And wherever there is a border with other faiths, such as Christianity in Lebanon and the Phillipines, Judaism in Israel, and Hinduism in India, there are violent conflicts. The Islamic world is not only the most violent, it is also one of the most backward, poor and primitive areas in the world.
The worst war that is currently taking place in the world is the Sunni-Shia sectarian violence in Iraq, where ca. 100 civilians are blown up every day. This is quite independent of the American presence and the former Iraq war, and is a reversion to the ages old Shia-Sunni rift, that long predates such recent phenomena. It is next to impossible for these two groups to tolerate each other, and the best thing to do is for the US to withdraw and let them fight it out. The idea of a democracy in Iraq is pie in the sky and the elected Iraqi Govt. of Maliki is fast unraveling.
Gordon Brown is not the first to be stricken with this particular form of oral cowardice. But, Brown's failure to be accurate in his description of the terrorist threat to Britain does not herald well his ability to deal with that threat.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:18 AM
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