Why oh why?
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
In a country which has mostly worn its religion comparatively lightly, at least for the past few hundred years, religious fanaticism seems very alien and incomprehensible. How many times have my constituents tackled me to ask me why it is that people born and brought up here so hate our way of life that they wish to kill us.
Although they overlap, it is just about possible to distinguish between two strands of terrorism. There were some in this country of Irish parentage who felt attracted to the IRA. Yet however terrible and reprehensible their actions were, at least the IRA was rooted in a territorial based quest. However difficult, it was possible to begin a negotiation and ultimately achieve a settlement. With religious or ideological and non land based terrorism, the enemy is a way of life; it is hugely more difficult.
Yesterday Jan Moir wrote an excellent piece in the Daily Telegraph, as did Michael Gove in the Times. Britain, for all its imperfections, is an extraordinarily tolerant and open society. Ultimately it is the communities themselves from which these potential killers have emerged who have to be the guardians of our liberties by helping to identify religious rabble rousers and fanatics, and those who have succumbed to their views. It is absolutely in their interest to do so and we have to assist this process as comprehensively as we can. Iraq, hedonism, Palestine or licentiousness can in no way justify the indiscriminate murder and mayhem of people in this country, irrespective of their faith or background, simply out of misplaced fury and loathing for the society we all live in.