Tendring Topics….on Line
Coping with Islamic State
So now we are
officially ‘at war’ with IS (Islamic State) with our aircraft already striking
IS targets but with the promise that there will be no ‘boots on the
ground’. This may slow down Islamic State’s
progress but I don’t think it will stop it; much less reverse it. Its principal effect will probably be to
recruit more enthusiastic young people from the UK and no doubt, from other
‘western’ countries, into the IS ranks.
Now, so it seems, British teenage girls are making for Turkey as the first step towards becoming brides
of their IS heroes in Syria ! It’s strange (well perhaps it isn’t) that we
never hear of young people travelling to Syria
to help those ‘moderate forces’ opposing President Assad that the UK and the USA are so eager to support.
I
heard on the tv a few days ago an ‘authority’ on Middle Eastern matters declare
that the IS uprising is a result of Britain ’s failure a year ago to
take decisive action against President Assad.
This, so he said, had enabled President Assad’s army to defeat the
‘moderate opposition’ and leave the extreme jihadists in control. What rubbish! Does he really imagine that if Assad had been
overthrown, those moderates would have prevailed over IS? On the contrary, without Assad, his army and
the substantial number of Syrians who remain loyal to him, IS would probably
now be ruling the whole of Syria .
The
Iraqi army has proved woefully unable to halt the IS advance. The Kurds have been more successful but they
are not a national army and the
Turks are unwilling to let them have the heavy weapons they need, because of
their fear that they might be used to create an independent Kurdistan – part of
which would be part of what is now Turkey!
The only effective national
army in the Middle East , experienced and
hardened in battle with Islamic State, is that of President Assad. It is time we made our peace with him and
accepted him as an ally.
No
doubt the pre-civil war Assad regime had its faults (what Middle Eastern regime
hasn’t?) but it was an oasis of freedom and tolerance compared with some of
those whom we now claim to be our friends.
Saudi Arabia
in particular is the source of the poisonous doctrines that IS puts into
practice. The overwhelming majority of
those known to be responsible for the 9/11 outrage were from Saudi Arabia . Saudi Arabia
regularly abuses human rights in much the same way as IS, but only on its own
people. Half its population (the women)
are regarded as the property of members of the other half! I have little doubt that IS’ initial funding
came from Saudi Arabia and Qatar . Now, of course, IS doesn’t need outside
funding. They have enriched themselves
from their conquests in Syria
and Iraq .
A regular blog reader points out in an email
that IS, unlike Hitler and his Nazis, is part of a militant movement that is sweeping
the globe. The Archbishop of Canterbury
accurately described it as a ‘many headed Hydra’. Islamic State in Syria and Iraq
has the same motivation and the same objectives as the Islamic jihadists who
abducted, and still hold, those Christian teenage girls in Nigeria ; those who constantly threaten the
government of Pakistan , who
are fighting for control of Libya ,
and who are likely to take over Afghanistan
as soon as the last GI leaves.
I am reluctant
to criticise Obama and Cameron for authorising air strikes on IS targets. I am sure that they have done so reluctantly
and that they are both well aware of the risk of their countries being dragged
into a third ‘Gulf War’. I really have
no idea of what their course of action should be. My blog-reading email correspondent clearly
feels the same. ‘I don’t think we can stand idly by and let these people take ever more
and more land, forcing completely peaceful populations out of their towns and
villages and murdering anyone who opposes them.
I feel that the priority should have been the defence of the innocent
and humanitarian relief – and that does need boots on the ground. Surely we have the hardware to put a ring of
steel around these villages and keep the enemy at bay without getting deeply
involved. It can’t be right for all the
Kurds to have to move into refugee camps in Turkey
No, of course
it isn’t. My knowledge of military
tactics is (to say the least) extremely limited – but I am sure that it
wouldn’t be possible to defend all those vulnerable towns and villages as my
correspondent suggest. I don’t think we should underestimate the fanaticism and
determination of these jihadists. National boundaries mean nothing to them. If they successfully drove all the Kurds out
of Iraq and into Turkey they’d drive on into Turkey !
I am just a little disappointed at the reaction to Islamic State of the majority of peaceful and
moderate Muslims in the UK
and Western Europe . Imams have condemned the actions of IS as unislamic but - where are the angry street demonstrations and
demands for a fatwa that were provoked by Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ and the cartoons
featuring the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper? As well as increasing Islamophobia in the
‘western world’ and providing encouragement to members of such Neofascist
organisations as BNP, English Defence League and some Ukippers, it is surely
the ultimate blasphemy to suggest that the torture and slaughter of any of his
human children is in accordance with the will of God.
I had been
persuaded that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and that jihad
doesn’t really mean a ‘Holy War’ but the inner struggle within us all against
the forces of evil. The members of
Islamic State and other similar organisations worldwide are doing their best to
persuade me (and thousands of others) otherwise.
‘Ring
of Steel’
My email
correspondent’s use of the phrase Rings of Steel to protect non-Islamic
communities in Iraq and Syria from the fury of the Islamic State, reminded me
that Ring of Steel was the headline on the
front page of the weekly Clacton Gazette on
Thursday 25th September. A
sub-heading announced that Special
Branch, undercover police and sniffer dogs are to be drafted into Clacton in a huge security operation for the town’s
high-profile by-election on 9th October – a fortnight away as
that particular Gazette was
published. If I publish this blog on the
internet on Monday 6th October as I intend, it will be just three
days away.
A news article
within the Gazette points out that this by-election will have the highest
profile in English political history and its announcement has come just as the
country is put on a heightened state of alert against possible terrorist
threats. Police say that there is no
known terrorist threat in Clacton but
electoral organisers are taking no chances.
Ian Davidson, Tendring Council’s Chief Executive and Returning Officer
for the Clacton By-election, told a Gazette reporter that, ‘This election is massive in terms of
attention and national politics – the spotlight is on Clacton
politically. We have been in touch with
Special Branch and the Police because there are potential security issues and
we are taking every precaution to make sure it is a safe and secure count. We have never had Special Branch at an
election before. There is no information of a specific security threat, but we
are taking every precaution because of the national and international profile
of the by-election’.
Tendring’s
district police commander, Chief Inspector Russ Cole said that local police
officers would be visiting polling stations throughout the day and there would
be a police presence at the count. ‘We are very much driven by intelligence, and
the intelligence we are looking at says there are no major public disorder or
counter-terrorist issues but we want to make sure we have enough policing
assets’.
I don’t know
whether or not my experience has been shared by others but it saddens me that
have to say that Ukip and Douglas Carswell have dominated the election
campaign. I have lost count of the
number of items of election literature I
have received telling me what a wonderful chap Carswell is, how fortunate we
are to have had him as our MP and how important it is that he should be
re-elected (but this time as a Ukipper) at the by-election. These have included leaflets, posters to
stick in my window and two apparently personal letters one that addresses me as
‘Dear Ernest’ and the other as ‘Dear Neighbour’. Douglas Carswell and I have never even met
and are certainly not on ‘first name terms’. I have no idea where ‘Dear Douglas’
lives but I’m quite sure it isn’t in my neighbourhood. I have also had a Ukip doorstep canvasser call
on me and among the junk phone calls I had yesterday (1st October)
was a lady urging me to put a cross against Carswell’s name on the 9th.
Of the other
contestants, I have received election leaflets from the Labour, Conservative
and Lib’Dem candidates plus a phone call on behalf of the Labour
candidate. And that’s it. Ukip, it seems, has unlimited funds and lots
of eager volunteer supporters. The
others haven’t.
Ukip’s policies embody everything that I most
dislike in politics. I don’t like their
attitude towards Europe , towards global
climate change, towards ‘green’ issues generally and towards taxation. The situation in the UK today, with a great many people (including
myself) having lost faith in any of the traditional political parties, is
uncomfortably like that in Germany
in the late 1920s early ‘30s. They
sought a politician who distrusted politics and offered an alternative
path. They found such a politician in
Adolf Hitler. We’re in danger of finding
one in Nigel Farage.
I have a
postal vote and have already used it.
For the first time in my life I voted for the Conservative candidate -
not because I want him as an MP, but because he offers the best chance of
keeping Ukip defector Douglas Carswell, out!
.
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