Only days after the Manchester atrocity, Jeremy Corbyn has re-entered campaign mode by suggesting that the West is, at least in part, responsible for barbaric acts such as a ‘soldier of the Caliphate’ slaughtering children. Long time peace campaigner, opponent of anti-terrorism measures, professed ‘friend’ of Hamas and Hezbollah, and former chairman of the Stop the War coalition, Corbyn draws a direct link between British foreign policy and the continuing terror threat from jihadis.
In a Chatham House speech, Corbyn suggested a future Labour government would seek to rely on a ‘triple commitment’ to defence, development and diplomacy to protect Britain’s interests. This was his alternative to what he characterised as a ‘bomb first, talk later’ mentality. As though Isis terrorism could be countered by a few more police on the beat and some bags of rice handed out by British diplomats.
That these are Corbyn’s own long held views views cannot be doubted. He has consistently held that terrorism is largely the product of Western governments. The terrorism of the IRA, even the Brighton bombing was, according to Corbyn, the result of British government policies in Northern Ireland.
When it comes to the Middle East Corbyn, in true Marxist fashion, is of the opinion that there is no such thing as a terrorism deeply rooted in Islamic teaching and attitudes. There are only people who are motivated by the actions of the oppressor class and who strike back in the only way they can.
This is all true to form for the modern Labour Party. In his ‘blame the West’ strategy Corbyn is egged on by two recent draftees into Labour HQ, Seamus Milne and Andrew Murray.
In October 2015 Milne, a convinced Marxist, was appointed the Labour Party’s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications. In typical ‘blame the victim’ leftist mode Milne, when still writing for the Guardian, had laid the blame for 9/11 and the Woolwich murder of Drummer Lee Rigby on Western involvement in the Middle East. We had it coming.
Murray, a one time communist and another former Stop the War chairman, was recently drafted in to Labour HQ to help with the election campaign. He shares many of Corbyn’s views, regarding Britain’s involvement in Middle East conflicts, including those in Syria, as ‘western imperialism’.
Corbyn and his allies have consistently propagated the view that British foreign policy, especially our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been instrumental in the increasing risk of terrorist attacks at home. This has a specious simplicity, which is tempting to those who swallow the progressive line and refuse to learn from history.
Corbyn is nearer the mark, even if unconsciously, when he pleads that ‘we never surrender the freedoms we have won and that terrorists are so determined to take away’. Reluctant as we may be to praise David Cameron, the one-time PM also got it right when, after Woolwich, he called that barbaric act ‘an attack on the British way of life’. Islamic terrorists are concerned with destroying the Western way of life.
The terrorists are not motivated by Western intervention in the Middle East, badly managed though that was. They are not motivated by the plight of the Palestinians, who have suffered more at the hands of Arab governments than Israel. These are only the two-pronged propaganda hooks they use; firstly to recruit gullible misfits as terrorists, and secondly to make the West look inward in self-condemnation. They intend to weaken the West and make us reluctant to face up to reality, and Corbyn and his allies fall in with their propaganda.
The terrorists of Isis, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and countless other factions are motivated by a determination to destroy the West and our way of life and make us submit to the diktats of radical Islam.
This is not a political struggle between competing power blocs. It is a clash of cultures that has existed long before the Bush/Blair adventures, before the Balfour declaration, before the fall of the Ottomans, before the invasion of Spain, before the fall of Constantinople.
There are two diametrically different worldviews that have encountered each other and come into conflict. One culture is a product of centuries of Christianity, the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment, and has produced the free and innovative society we know today in the West. The other culture is the product of Islam, sharia law, tribal society, and an ideology of submission and the sword, which has produced inward looking failed states across the globe. One culture produced that atmosphere of free enquiry and personal responsibility that gave rise to democracy. The other culture produces authoritarian theocratic structures that stifle personal responsibility and are inimical to democracy. Until we recognise this we will fail to come to terms with and counter the threat we face.
Corbyn, who hopes to become prime minister one day soon, deliberately chooses to ignore the fact that the West is fundamentally different from the Middle East. Having no faith himself he is unable to perceive that people who do have a faith may actually believe it and want to see it implemented in their society. Over centuries this has produced a civilisation in the West that allows him see things only through Marxist economic and class filters. Under Islam he would not have that freedom.
In all the relentless platitudes which have flowed from the media and our supposed leaders recently, two words have been notable by their absence, the ‘I’ words, Islam and immigration.
We have imported countless immigrants from Muslim countries, most of whom just want to get on with their lives, but many of whom are either Islamic radicals themselves or easy prey for them. In the name of multiculturalism instead of integrating them into British communities, we have encouraged our immigrants to create ghettos where their contact and interaction with Britain has been minimal. This has been largely at the instigation of the Labour Party and their supporters in the media.
Labour’s foreign policy should begin at home where, despite the many Muslims who have integrated, we have people living in our midst who are determined to remain foreigners.
(Image: Garry Knight)
