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07/21/2005
Tony Blair on Terror
Note: I was going to do a piece on ‘bird flu’ but have opted to
post an important speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair
on the war on terror; given to his Labour Party national
conference on July 16, 2005. I’ll do the bird flu story next time.
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The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the nature of the
threat we are dealing with. What we witnessed in London last
Thursday week was not an aberrant act.
It was not random. It was not a product of particular local
circumstances in West Yorkshire.
Senseless though any such horrible murder is, it was not without
sense for its organizers. It had a purpose. It was done according
to a plan. It was meant.
What we are confronting here is an evil ideology.
It is not a clash of civilizations – all civilized people, Muslim or
other, feel revulsion at it. But it is a global struggle and it is a
battle of ideas, hearts and minds, both within Islam and outside
it.
This is the battle that must be won, a battle not just about the
terrorist methods but their views. Not just their barbaric acts, but
their barbaric ideas. Not only what they do but what they think
and the thinking they would impose on others.
This ideology and the violence that is inherent in it did not start a
few years ago in response to a particular policy. Over the past 12
years, Al-Qaeda and its associates have attacked 26 countries,
killed thousands of people, many of them Muslims.
They have networks in virtually every major country and
thousands of fellow travelers. They are well-financed. Look at
their websites.
They aren’t unsophisticated in their propaganda. They recruit
however and whoever they can and with success.
Neither is it true that they have no demands. They do. It is just
that no sane person would negotiate on them.
They demand the elimination of Israel; the withdrawal of all
Westerners from Muslim countries, irrespective of the wishes of
people and government; the establishment of effectively Taliban
states and Sharia law in the Arab world en route to one caliphate
of all Muslim nations.
We don’t have to wonder what type of country those states
would be. Afghanistan was such a state. Girls put out of school.
Women denied even rudimentary rights. People living in abject
poverty and oppression. All of it justified by reference to
religious faith.
The 20th century showed how powerful political ideologies could
be. This is a religious ideology, a strain within the world-wide
religion of Islam, as far removed from its essential decency and
truth as Protestant gunmen who kill Catholics or vice versa, are
from Christianity. But do not let us underestimate it or dismiss
it.
Those who kill in its name believe genuinely that in doing it,
they do God’s work; they go to paradise.
From the mid-1990s onwards, statements from Al-Qaeda, gave
very clear expression to this ideology: “Every Muslim, the
minute he can start differentiating, carries hatred towards the
Americans, Jews and Christians. This is part of our ideology.
The creation of Israel is a crime and it has to be erased.
“You should know that targeting Americans and Jews and killing
them anywhere you find them on the earth is one of the greatest
duties and one of the best acts of piety you can offer to God
Almighty.” Just as great is their hatred for so-called apostate
governments in Muslim countries. This is why mainstream
Muslims are also regarded as legitimate targets.
At last year’s (Labour) party conference, I talked about this
ideology in these terms.
Its roots are not superficial, but deep, in the madrassas of
Pakistan, in the extreme forms of Wahabi doctrine in Saudi
Arabia, in the former training camps of Al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan; in the cauldron of Chechnya; in parts of the politics
of most countries of the Middle East and many in Asia; in the
extremist minority that now in every European city preach hatred
of the West and our way of life.
This is what we are up against. It cannot be beaten except by
confronting it, symptoms and causes, head-on. Without
compromise and without delusion.
The extremist propaganda is cleverly aimed at their target
audience. It plays on our tolerance and good nature.
It exploits the tendency to guilt of the developed world, as if it is
our behavior that should change, that if we only tried to work out
and act on their grievances, we could lift this evil, that if we
changed our behavior, they would change theirs. This is a
misunderstanding of a catastrophic order.
Their cause is not founded on an injustice. It is founded on a
belief, one whose fanaticism is such it can’t be moderated. It
can’t be remedied. It has to be stood up to.
And, of course, they will use any issue that is a matter of dissent
within our democracy. But we should lay bare the almost-
devilish logic behind such manipulation.
If it is the plight of the Palestinians that drives them, why, every
time it looks as if Israel and Palestine are making progress, does
the same ideology perpetrate an outrage that turns hope back into
despair?
If it is Afghanistan that motivates them, why blow up innocent
Afghans on their way to their first ever election? If it is Iraq that
motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror
in defiance of an elected Iraqi government?
What was September 11, 2001 the reprisal for? Why even after
the first Madrid bomb (in March 2004) and the election of a new
Spanish government, were they planning another atrocity when
caught?
Why if it is the cause of Muslims that concerns them, do they kill
so many with such callous indifference?
We must pull this up by its roots. Within Britain, we must join
up with our Muslim community to take on the extremists.
Worldwide, we should confront it everywhere it exists .
Round the world, there are conferences already being held,
numerous inter-faith dialogues in place but we need to bring all
of these activities together and give them focus.
We must be clear about how we win this struggle. We should
take what security measures we can. But let us not kid ourselves.
In the end, it is by the power of argument, debate, true religious
faith and true legitimate politics that we will defeat this threat.
That means not just arguing against their terrorism, but their
politics and their perversion of religious faith. It means exposing
as the rubbish it is, the propaganda about America and its allies
wanting to punish Muslims or eradicate Islam.
It means championing our values of freedom, tolerance and
respect for others. It means explaining why the suppression of
women and the disdain for democracy are wrong.
The idea that elected governments are the preserve of those of
any other faith or culture is insulting and wrong. Muslims
believe in democracy just as much as any other faith and, given
the chance, show it.
We must step up the urgency of our efforts. Here and abroad, the
times the terrorists have succeeded are all too well known.
Less known are the times they have been foiled. The human life
destroyed we can see. The billions of dollars every nation now
spends is huge and growing. And they kill without limit.
They murdered over 50 innocent people (in London) last week.
But it could have been over 500. And had it been, they would
have rejoiced.
The spirit of our age is one in which the prejudices of the past are
put behind us, where our diversity is our strength. It is this
which is under attack. Moderates are not moderate through
weakness but through strength. Now is the time to show it in
defense of our common values.
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Hott Spotts will return July 28.
Brian Trumbore
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