Notes from the Road

This was published earlier today by Moslem leaders in the UK:

“Prime Minister, As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.
It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.
The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.
Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.
Such a move would make us all safer.”

I think they are right. As I’ve said before, this militaristic and interventionist approach to the Middle East just won’t work. I’m not advocating “giving in” to terrorists – I am advocating engaging with the leaders in the Middle East and giving them the help they want, rather than imposing our solution on them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Peace, Personal, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.