Britain’s On Again, Off Again War on Terror
And when, as in the case of Qatada, the government does get it right, they face a sustained assault by human rights lawyers and civil liberties groups who, cheered on by left-wing media commentators and assorted celebrities (anyone remember Julie Christie ?), fight tooth and nail to prevent hateful and violent men — who are often living in the UK illegally — from being removed from the country.
The Law Lords’ ruling on Qatada was significant because it rejected the argument that a person shouldn’t be deported from Britain — even if, like Qatada, they’ve been convicted of crimes in another country, and despite assurances they won’t be tortured — because evidence against them might have been extracted under torture. The Lords rightly decided this was one hypothetical too far, ruling that evidence of torture in another country “does not require this state, the United Kingdom, to retain in this country, to the detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect.”
This was a severe blow to the human rights lobby, for whom hypotheticals are everything. These, after all, are people who inhabit a pink-skied wonderland in which actions have no consequences, and in which no difficult choices ever have to be made. They see nothing incongruous in debating to the nth degree the legal status and “rights” of men who saw off the heads of captives live on the internet and plot murder on an industrial scale.
The rights of innocent people killed by terrorists — who in many cases will have been inspired by men like Qatada — don’t feature in their thinking; they are not, as a lawyer might say, “germane” to the principles being debated. These lofty idealists will, of course, never have to pick body parts out of the remains of a subway carriage, or break the news to a husband that his wife won’t be coming home because she got on the wrong plane at the wrong time.
Those suspected, but not convicted, of terrorist offenses are entitled to protection. But while the UK and U.S. governments err on the side of keeping innocent people safe, the human rights absolutists are prepared to accept a few casualties — such as the victims of those released from Guantanamo to kill again — as a small price to pay for securing the moral high ground. These people like to claim they’re acting out of principle, and some — however naively — certainly are. Others, however, are simply using the human rights debate as a smokescreen under which to further their leftist agendas.
Anyone who doubts that this is the case should note the deafening silence from British civil rights groups in response to the government’s ban on Wilders. Organizations such as Liberty (the British equivalent of the ACLU), whose mouthy director Shami Chakrabarti is omnipresent in media debates about the treatment of terror suspects, have said nothing about the Wilders ban and its implications for free speech — proving that, unlike Voltaire, they will defend your right to say what you want, just so long as they agree with you.
The hardcore element of the human rights lobby does not speak for the majority of the British people, but their ideas are rarely challenged, because they have become orthodoxy among the cultural and political elite — and because that elite dominates the media, the arts, and the legal profession they’re able to exert a disproportionate influence on public opinion and government policy.
The government is right to resist the attempts of a tiny band of vocal activists to undermine its anti-terror policies, but it also needs to get its own house in order and formulate a coherent strategy that combines a robust approach to fighting terrorism with the unconditional rejection of Islamic extremism in all its forms. It should, with immediate effect, opt out of the jurisdiction of the European Court, as Alasdair Palmer argues in the Telegraph. But it should also abandon attempts to appease Islamic extremists and their enablers. Deporting Qatada and every last terror suspect from Britain will achieve nothing as long as we continue to nurture the next generation of radicals by moving library books and asking our children to empathize with terrorists.
Excellent article. I noted the silence of the otherwise ubiquitous and intensely irritating. Shami Chakrabarti. And there is a special place in hell reserved for Gareth Pearce – a woman, belive it or not – who defends terrorists’ “human rights”.
Our government’s policy is hopelessly muddled.
It’s the same illogic seen amongst the “progressives” here in the U.S., who believe that “We hate America and the West, the Islamists hate America and the West, ergo, we are natural allies, so let’s support them any way we can.”
And yes, they believe that after the Islamist “triumph”, said Islamists will not only be grateful for their help, but will recognize their “innate superiority and fitness to rule”, and let the “enlightened elite’” run the world for them.
One wonders if they will realize how mistaken they were, even when being bent over the block for the headsman’s sword.
clear ether
eon
I love these education chiefs who insist that students see the London Tube bombings from the perspective of the bombers.
Should we start to learn Holocaust history from the perspectives of the SS? What exactly is the difference? Both the SS and Islamic terrorists are fascists, both hate Jews and, frankly, anyone who disagrees with them on virtually anything.
But twenty-first century fascists, masked in the “religion of peace,” are apparently a different breed from the brutes of the past. Multiculturalism will be our downfall.
Mary: Pierce (I think that’s the spelling) has yet to meet a terrorist she doesn’t like. It’s surely only a matter of time before she’s caught actively co-operating with one, as Lynne Stewart was caught helping Abdel-Rahman in the US.
Eon: if you haven’t already, check out ‘Unholy Alliance’ by David Horowitz, which has lots to say about the links between the left and Islamists. His central thesis is that the Marxist left believes Muslims have only turned to religion because of their poor socio-economic conditions, and oppression by the West – so if the Western oppression is removed, they’ll no longer have any cause to embrace Islam.
Also, as you say, both parties take the view that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’.
Britain is in a PC death spiral. I honestly see no hope for them. And now with Obama in the White House, it seems that we are preparing to hop in after them.
London needs a 100K casualty event and then the Brits will be more clear on what they need to do. Obviously not enough people died in the last incident.
Just deport them. My God. That will send a message to the other islamist jihadist types that they won’t tolerate calls for terrorism and the violent overthrow of the British governmnet. These nuts are brainwashing the youth of the Western world.
Testing 1, 2, 3
Pope Linus:
“Should we start to learn Holocaust history from the perspectives of the SS? What exactly is the difference? Both the SS and Islamic terrorists are fascists, both hate Jews and, frankly, anyone who disagrees with them on virtually anything.”
They have done that already, imagining the Holocaust from the perspective of the SS.
I lived in England for three years, about two years ago, this didn’t catch on in the mainstreame Brit press, only the Jewish press picked it up, it was discovered a school had awarded a prize to a student writer for something like, “Jews, Jews go to your places, the gas chamber, I am glad that you are dead.”
The winning stories were put in a book and sent to students from the school. A Jewish parent got upset and broke the story.
I wrote to the Education Secretary’s office and was told that a) the contest was sponsored by an private publishing company so the school and faculty could not be held responsbile and that b) the kids were taking the point of view of historical figures, in this case, Adolf Hitler, which, I pointed out, WAS in keeping with the curriculum.
Same nonsense they are pleddling with the bombers.
Well, when the Brits lose a few hundred or thousand more people in the next terrorist attack to hit their shores (which it will), then maybe they will start taking things more seriously and oust the clowns they’ve got running the show …
The UK is a place where schools fore go teaching anything about the holocaust because it “offends” Muslims.Not sure why this is, except maybe they fear that the Palestinian support of the NAZIs may become better known. In any event, a society that allows immigrants to dictate its educational policies can’t be relied upon for very much
The UK is a place where schools fore go teaching anything about the holocaust because it “offends” Muslims.
Wrong. Teaching about the holocaust is in fact compulsory up to age 14.
The same goes on in every western country, but the UK and France are lost. A study predicted that Russia would be a Muslim-majority country in 20 years. It boggles my mind how any thinking person can miss then obvious: the Muslims are coming, the Muslims are coming, and they will take over.
Yet, in every European country where islamization is in full speed, the parties opposing radical Islam and further immigration are winning. But the governments are not listening – at least not yet.
Yesterday a Norwegian paper run a story on a Paki imam who did his best to counter Norwegian’s anti-Islam party leader’s declaration that Islam is sneaking into the country. Sitting in his $10,000,000 mosque he demands separate schools, hospitals and services to Muslims, and other mosques are the center of drug trade. These misunderstood sons of Islam.
Psychobarb: “They have done that already, imagining the Holocaust from the perspective of the SS.”
Whoa, hadn’t heard about that. I never thought that something like that was actually possible. Thanks for the story. Absolutely nuts.
Mary Jackson:
Absolutely correct, the Holocaust is taught in schools PLUS the Imperial War Museum has a first rate Holocaust exhibit that, I believe is now permanent. Lots of British school children pass through.
“And professing to be wise, they became fools…”
Stick a fork in their butt and turn them over.
Britain is done.
“The UK is a place where schools fore go teaching anything about the holocaust because it “offends” Muslims. Not sure why this is, except maybe they fear that the Palestinian support of the NAZIs may become better known. In any event, a society that allows immigrants to dictate its educational policies can’t be relied upon for very much”
You are either blatantly deceitful or just plain ignorant, in any event you can’t be relied on for very much.