Tolerance terrifies crazed extremists
THE Houses of Parliament’s status as an icon of democracy is only strengthened when it is attacked.
Much of the area around Westminster was closed to the public yesterday morning after the apparent act of terrorism but the tourists on the far side of the Thames had special cause to admire this palace of politics.
The likes of David Lloyd George and Aneurin Bevan stood in the Commons and changed the world with their visions for how the power of government can be harnessed to go to war against poverty and disease. The chamber itself was bombed during World War Two but that only strengthened the resolve of democrats in different parties to defy fascism in all its forms.
Democracy is powered by debate and diversity and founded upon a belief in people’s assailable right to freedom of speech, worship and assembly – liberties which have been lost or never experienced in much of the world.
There are individuals and organisations that regard parliamentary democracy not as a treasure of a civilised society but as a target to destroy. Yesterday’s incident brought back memories of last year’s brutal murder of PC Keith Palmer by a fanatic.
There is nothing noble or principled about the nihilism and lunacy which drives individuals to commit acts of carnage, regardless of whether the perpetrators are “lone wolves” or part of a movement of extremists convinced it has a mandate to conquer and enslave others.
Londoners demonstrated their strength in the way they shrugged off the incident as the act of an idiot who deserved nothing but disdain. There was no pulse of panic running through the city as people found new routes to get to work; these men and women have no intention of granting fanatics a victory by living in fear of their outrages.
Similarly, as the people of so many cities targeted by terrorists in recent years have demonstrated, they will refuse to look at fellow commuters, shoppers or workers with suspicion because of how they dress or pray. Extremists are terrified of the success of democracies at bringing together people of different languages, ethnicities and faiths around a shared set of universal values. They dread a world in which people do not just show toleration but befriend and love their neighbours – yet that is the reality and the future we are blessed to know and defend.