A dark, twisted political fantasy
A policy of nonsense is rearing its ugly head across the world as people need help more than ever
Blaming Muslims for the world’s wrongs is a serious mistake, but it is becoming dangerously common. The political leadership in the West is making a terrible mistake by confusing a range of separate issues and lumping them into what might easily become a totally false clash of civilisations.
Instead, they need to be clear about working with global leaders, around the world, of all faiths to fight terror and support the rule of law — not just when sitting at diplomatic conferences, but also when standing up to the racists and Islamophobes among their own people.
It is stupid of leaders in the European Union to deliberately confuse desperate refugees with dangerous terrorists. Millions of families are fleeing gross violence in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and other failed states and it is natural and reasonable that they try to seek refuge in more stable regimes in an attempt to rebuild their lives. Of course they are a vast problem for their unwilling hosts, but there is no reason to treat them as criminals or to assume that they are terrorists, even if one or two such criminals successfully infiltrate the millions of suffering victims of war.
It is a serious mistake to imprison these refugees in miserable camps, but it is far worse to assume that all Muslims are violent and for some European nations to seek to exclude Muslim refugees and only accept Christians.
But at least the European debate remains rational, even if terribly confused and dangerously misguided, whereas the debate in the Republican Party in United States presidential election primaries has descended into total nonsense. It is a terrible indictment of the sensible politicians remaining on the Republican podium and of the TV commentators and newspaper analysts that they have not dismissed the lies and discrimination being peddled as political argument.
Donald Trump made up a false memory of thousands of American Muslims dancing in the streets of New Jersey, celebrating the 9/11 attacks, and when challenged about this lie he has repeated it.
Ted Cruz, one of the more serious hopefuls for the Republican nomination, has argued that the US should only accept Christian refugees from Syria and keep out the Muslims, and we do not know what he thinks of Buddhists, atheists or Jews who might be Syrian. And assorted governors of several American states have said that they will ban Muslim refugees from Syria settling in their territory.
Ideals to live by
It is shocking that Ben Carson can remain a Republican frontrunner, close behind the appalling Trump, and yet he can still say that he does not think a Muslim should be president of the US. There are any number of Muslim Americans who have held public office and have done so with distinction, as have Jews and Christians, and men and women, and blacks and whites. The US is based on the glorious principles of equality and tolerance and its politicians should live up to those ideals.
These current combinations of jingoistic racism and religious hatred should be outlawed and condemned. Such blatant religious prejudice of refugees should never be tolerated, particularly in the country that was founded by radical religious believers who were exporting their version of faith in the Mayflower.
The wonderful ideals of the American Declaration of Independence and the country’s Constitution were still some years ahead, but remain the inspiration to which modern day leaders should aspire.
It is understandable that the French are furious over the attacks in Paris, and they deserve the world’s sympathy for their loss, as do the Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Nigerians, to name only a very few of the states that have been attacked by Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and their fellow terrorists. Nonetheless it is dangerous for French Prime Ministers Francois Hollande to talk of France going to war and to seek the destruction of Daesh without talking of the need for political reconstruction in Syria.
It is dangerous that British Prime Minister David Cameron can seek a motion in the House of Commons to gain support for the simplistic answer of air strikes against Daesh, without equal prominence being given to the need to support a political settlement in Syria.
The lessons of the past few decades prove that military action cannot succeed without a clear political solution, which must be integral with the military element in a comprehensive plan.
The German cabinet has come out in support of air strikes, but it is irresponsible for the Europeans to lash out at Daesh from the air, raining down destruction and death on terrorists and anyone else nearby, without seeking to support the rebuilding of a Syrian (or Iraqi, or Libyan) state. There is a dangerous caricature of policy that yet again European and American forces are going to war in the Arab world without backing a clear political structure that will replace the vacuum they hope to create.
War and violence are not the way to build a stable future for the world. Refugees need to be welcomed in as dignified a way as possible. Religion should never be equated with criminality or violence.
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