Straw's history lesson aims to bring moderate Muslims on side

[praxiz]

Jack Straw is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the U.K. Truly a man of vision, and someone worth listening to. Amongst other things he also say that the military presence in Iraq is fueling the insurgency and is part of the problem, not the solution.

Anyway:

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Straw's history lesson aims to bring moderate Muslims on side

By James Blitz


Jack Straw has been talking to Muslim leaders at home and abroad about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot. This may a seem a trifle academic given the immediacy of the terror threat gripping London today.

But the foreign secretary likes to remind moderate Arab leaders that the British have endured a long history of religious-based terrorism which, on several occasions, came close to destabilising our own state.

Mr Straw says he talks to Islamic leaders about these issues - the Catholic plot to blow up parliament in 1605, the sometimes bloody struggle to give non-Anglicans civic rights in the 19th century - because it is important for Muslims to realise that religion-based terrorism is not a flaw unique to Islam.

(snip)

In his view, moderate Islam needs to realise that it is not alone in facing this struggle. "Yes, suicide bombing is pretty much isolated to people who follow one religion today," he says. But in the foreign secretary's view, Muslim and Arab states must know this is a battle that has been faced by Britain, and many other societies, before.


http://news.ft.com/cms/s/039d4d28-02f2-11da-84e5-00000e2511c8.html">much much more

[thebigidea]

1. what a condescending little git

[JDPriestly]

2. This is interesting.

Only nonviolence allows people to solve problems and move forward. Violence just feeds on itself and causes more hurt and violence. Life is cruel enough without violence.

I believe that the people who plant these bombs or blow themselves up are simply angry, criminal individuals who use ideology as an excuse for their violence. They are so angry that they turn not only on others but on themselves. I do not believe that these individuals are truly moved to violence out of their ideology.

I think that the motivations of suicide bombers differ from those of people who take part in mob violence. Mob violence does often arise out of ideological fanaticism. It is a sort of mass hysteria that sweeps through a crowd. It is not premeditated as are the suicide bombings, and the individuals who find themselves swept up in mob violence would not normally commit such crimes except as members of the mob. They would not be violent if they thought quietly about the consequences of their actions first. The suicide bombers methodically plan to cause the dreadful consequences of their acts. That is criminal behavior. Bin Laden and his ilk are merely extortionists, merely criminals.

[mogster]

3. Well, a man of vision, I don't know

But he's right about this: "the military presence in Iraq is fueling the insurgency and is part of the problem, not the solution".

I only wish he'd seen it some years ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Better link (without the repeated http//)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/039d4d28-02f2-11da-84e5-00000e2511c8.html

[bemildred]

5. He should have studied Britain's previous engagements in the Middle East.

That might have done some good. Noticing, at this point, that the occupation is the problem is not an indicator of high intellectual acumen.

[evermind]

6. Actually, he says part of the problem AND the solution

the exact quote:

although we are part of the security solution there, we are also part of the problem.

Let's not forget, in the immediate aftermath of the 7th July bombings, Straw (along with Blair) was one of the most vociferous deniers of any link with the situation in Iraq, and has since (along with Blair) softened his faith-based denials only after a poll showed approximately 12% of the UK thought them credible (see http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200507/a102285a-9fe5-439f-8662-3b0fcf2cb66d.htm )

Far from being "a man of vision" or indeed much independent thought at all, if his public pronouncements are anything to go by, Straw is little more than a mouthpiece of Blair, called in to attempt to reconcile glaring contradictions in the government line where it would be too embarrassing for Tony to even address them.

Personally, I think the apallingly self-satisfied little twit has convinced himself he's up for Prime Minister when Blair quits, as a Blairite candidate running against Brown, and is prepared to do any amount of brown-nosing and grubbing to assure himself of the post. The way UK politics are at the moment, we may just be unfortunate enough to get him.


(edit: speling)

[lockdown]

8. Straw is a consummate politician,

a disgusting hypocritical little slimebag who will embrace whatever stance he thinks will help his career.

I remember reading an anecdote about his student politics days, he was making a passionate and convincing case on some issue when someone approached the podium and whispered that actually, the group had endorsed an opposite stance. Without missing a beat, he launched into an equally passionate and convincing argument for the opposing view. As someone observed at the time, that boy "will go far in politics".

[htuttle]

7. So, Jack....

...Has the "Irish problem" you allude to been solved more by bombing and invading Ireland and occupying it by force, or by negotiations in good faith?

Which has done more good, Jack?

:eyes: