Enough Already

I’ve mentioned before that from time to time over the last four decades I’ve had various Muslims making attempts to kill me. It gets really tiresome; I would really like it end.

In addition to the various and sundry “terrorists” generated by the situation in Palestine who attempted to plant bombs where I slept, the Shrubbery’s newest, best friend ever, Muammar al-Gaddafi, use to send his aircraft out to shoot me down as flew by in an unarmed, marked US aircraft.

This gets to be a real drag, okay? You want to see it end at some point.

It is not going to end when people deny reality.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and other British officials want the leaders of the Muslim communities in the United Kingdom to do more about extremists, but they aren’t listening.

Case in point, this BBC article, Taking on extremists:

Home Secretary John Reid reacted angrily to the open letter from some Muslim leaders over the weekend calling for a rethink on foreign policy.

That in turn has infuriated some of those who signed it. One said he felt “labelled a terrorist traitor to my country for having the gall to exercise my democratic right to speak out”.

Around the table in Whitehall, Ms Kelly is said to have batted away talk of foreign policy in order to concentrate on what her community teams can do. But some of those present found this unconvincing.

“If you want to combat extremism – whatever that extremism is – you have to remove the ingredients that feed it and foreign policy is one of them,” said one senior Muslim figure.

“We need the government to think about ways that we get young Muslims to feed into the policy process. This is not about ministers accepting what they have to say all the time – it’s about Muslims knowing they have listened.

“You have young people who perceive that our foreign policy is a war against a religion. Anybody knows that if you try to fight a religion it will only get stronger.”

Foreign policy is the reason that moderately comfortable people, born and raised in Britain, are suddenly taking up arms against their birth country. You would think that, with its history, Britain would understand the importance of religion in policy. What do these people think Northern Ireland is all about?

I’m not saying that a government has to change its foreign policy, but it shouldn’t be surprised when the policy causes problems. It would also be nice if the government addressed the concerns of a segment of its population when it is obvious there are going to be problems. The government really doesn’t have to care, but it should at least act like it does, so the moderate leaders have something to work with in their community.