Friday, March 24, 2017

Former Labour Foreign Minister: UK Can’t Defeat Terror Without Understanding Religion

Former Labour Party minister Kim Howells, who was responsible for military security under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, has suggested the Labour government of which he was a member was wrong to ignore the religious roots of Islamist terror, urging authorities to ‘take on’ the ideology to defeat terror.


While Blair was playing the Christian crusader as sidekick to US President George W Bush (and being reminded by his spin doctor Alistair Campbell that in Britain "we don't do God" there was, Mr. Howells said, a failure to understand that Islamist violence is distinct from other forms of terror and Western values such as democracy must be defended. Presumably he is trying to tell his party the time for appeasement of Islamic extremism is gone, it's time to push back.


“I was part of a Government that said: ‘Well, we don’t do God.’ he commented, "But you can’t afford not to do God on this one, I think,” he told Wales Online.


“These people aren’t motivated – not on the most part, anyway – by money or some kind of nationalism. It’s different from the IRA. These people are prepared to kill themselves and they do it because they think it’s a shortcut to paradise…


“Unless people have enough courage to take that on and try and convince young people that the Caliphate is not a better way of running society than a democracy they are going to be lured to these organisations.”


Whilst some say Islamic terror is largely driven by grievances such as “Islamophobia”, “alienation”, marginalisation, poverty and Western foreign policy, Mr. Howells argues that in order to understand fundamentalist Islam's loathing of western culture it is necessary to appreciate the importance of theological conflicts in Islamic societies.


“These guys are not just trying to kill unbelievers and Christians and so on. Their main enemy is another form of Islam,” he said, referring to the violent schism between Sunni and Shia Islam.


"Many other nations and ethnic groups have been affected by foreign interventions and discrimination, yet the vast majority of recent terror attacks have occurred in countries afflicted by Islamist insurgencies."


It is true that western governments have failed to understand the deep rooted causes of Islamic extremism but this blog would argue that is not a failing on the part of western cultures. Rather it is not possible for westerners to understand the backward and tribalistic mindset of many subcultures in the Muslim world. How for example does one go about persuading randy young men who have been indoctrinated with the idea that women are unclean, their only purposes being to serve men and to produce babies, to understand that in the west women are independent beings, free to dress how they wish and go freely wherever they want to in the same way men are. Or to make fundamentalists understand that while nobody is going to make Muslims or Jews eat pork and ham, we accept the right to eat those foods in accordance with the values and traditions of our culture, and they must learn to live alongside pork eaters.


If we cannot do that, and I suspect we can't, then we in the secular democracies must accept that mass immigration from certain Muslim cultures is not going to work, that some people just cannot accept that while we respect their right to worship as they wish, we expect them to afford us the same respect, even if in the cases of many of us it means that we choose not to worship but use our right to freedom of speech to argue against religion. Because until they are able to grant our values the same respect as they demand we grant theirs, fundamentalist Islam and secular society can never live side by side.




RELATED POSTS:


The Charge Of The Anti-enlightenment Brigade
I don’t know if many of you remember London's Atheist Bus a few years ago. It toured the city bearing adverts that read: ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ and was a great success[ ... ] this demonstrates the Sheeple - like tendencies of those who claim they have reason on their side: the religious propagandist with the sandwich board saying ‘repent, the end is nigh' was always the subject of jokes. Why do the opposing side now feel the need to parade high tech sandwich boards saying, "no need to repent, the end isn't nigh'?


Top Academic: Muslims Would Not Tolerate Multiculturalism in Islamic Countries
Leading Iranian academic Afshin Ellian has warned that cultural Marxist delusions of “multiculturalism” are a one-way street as left wing activist in the secular Christian nations of the west clamour for appeasement of Islamic extremists. Muslims in Europe oppress historic minorities in their own lands and have no intention of showing “tolerance”

Progressive' Gay Mayor Of Seattle Craps On Christians And Atheists In Self Righteous Bid To Be Fair To Muslims

In an effort to appease followers of Islamic Sharia law, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is searching for ways to help them buy houses. According to Sharia law, muslims are forbidden to pay interest on loans, thus making it impossible for most of them to buy a house. Mayor Murray wants to meet with lenders to solve this “problem”, and possibly put the rest of the public on the hook for the debt.

Black Belgians Refute ‘Poverty, Discrimination’ As Causes Of Arab Terror - It's A Cultural Thing

“You know, we hear a lot about how the Arabs are a fragile community that suffers, but we, ‘les blackies,’ are discriminated against, too, and we hurt nobody”, Nico Atoba, an African Christian living in Brussels told the National Post for a feature the Canadian newspaper was assembling.

Corbyn's Politically Correct Hypocrites Hate Sexism But Approve Of Muslim Sexism

On encountering my insense dislike of the Labour Party, people asume I am a Conservative. WRONG! I have never supported The Conservatives and have never voted either Conservative or Labour in my life. Politicians should never be trusted, I but what sets Labour politicians and activists above the rest in terms of being worthy of only contempt is the hypocrisy.

Senior German Government Figure Calls For Mandatory Pork Ban In School, Government Canteens

The gulf in attitudes between the political ,business and academic elites and reality is growing wider at an accelerating rate. While ordinary people hold onto the values and traditions of Europe's 5000 year old civilisation, the elites seeme determined to sell our contintent from under our feet to immigrants who have contributed little but want to impose their religion and customs on us. Here's an example ...

Britain’s report on Muslim Brotherhood contradicts U.S. views on group

A spate of warning on the imminent threat of more and increasingly bloody attacks on Britain and Europe by Muslim terror group Islamic State have been issued by British government security agencies in the past few days. As well as one from the Police covert anti terror unit, reported here, another, Muslim Brotherhood Review has been featured in the Washington Times

USA Extends Drone war To Africa

So why we wonder is the USA taking its drone war against the third world into deepest, sub Sahran Africa? There cannot be any reason for it, the cited aim of neutralising Boko Haram is not valid because boko Haram are not a standing army but a guerilla force that strikes and then melts away into the civilian population.

Jews Fleeing From France In Record Numbers Because Of Antisemitism

Europe's new wave anti - semitism. Jewish people are fleeing france but not because of Front National or nationalism. The stupid, self righteous left alone must take credit for this outbreak of Jew hating.

Die Hard With A Tribal Mask: 23 Dead After Al-Qaeda Storms West African Hotel

The renewed turmoil in Burkina Faso the landlocked country which is Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer and which has been torn by civil conflicts since it gained independence from France in 1960. Coup d'etats in 1966, 1970, 1977 and 1983, with changes of political style from the new regimes each time destabilised the country and obstructed progress.

Indonesia Tells Aussie Loudmouth Tony Abbott, STF UP Over ‘Reform Islam’ Call

The solidly Muslim government of Indonesia has attacked former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott after he said that Islam needs to be reformed. Sources in Indonesian capital Jakarta dismissed Abbott's comments as “unhelpful” and “divisive”. Ambassador to Austrialia responded to Mr Abbott’s critique by adding that violent extremism is “common in all faiths.”

Christians Are Not Safe In Europe, European Parliament President Says

In a meeting on religious tensions in Europe today (3 December, 2015), European Parrliament (EP) President Martin Schulz said that the persecution of Christians in Europe is under - reported and does not receive enough media attention, which has also meant that it "has not been properly addressed".

Killjoymas - the favourite festival of The Bansturbators

But Christmas is approaching again so perhaps it is time to give it a revamp. It is interesting to note how the Politically Correct Thought Police have progressed from banning Christmas festivities on health and grounds to banning everything on the grounds that it might offend Muslims.


Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] ... [ Daily Stirrer.shtml ]...[Little Nicky Machiavelli]... [ Ian's Authorsden Pages ]... [ It's Bollocks My Dears, All Bollocks ] [Scribd]...[Wikinut] ... [ Boggart Abroad] ... [ Grenteeth Bites ] ... [ Latest Posts ] [Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] ... [Latest Posts] ... [ Tumblr ] ... [ Authorsden blog ] ... [Daily Stirrer Headlines]

[ Ian at Facebook ]