[image: http://digitaledition.telegraph.co.uk/sites/all/themes/turner_app/images/dt_masthead.png]
Comment Islamism is an attack on our civilization – this must be recognized The murder of Fr Hamel is a reminder that we in the West still have to find a way to deal with extremism *Charles Moore* Pope Francis called the murder of an 85-year-old Catholic priest while saying Mass in a suburb of Rouen this week “an act of absurd violence”. Why “absurd”? Others speaking for the Catholic Church have described the killers of Fr Jacques Hamel as “psychopathic” or “madmen”. They seem not to want to talk about the motive for the violence as stated by the killers themselves – their Muslim faith. It is true that psychopaths quite often enlist God, and that young men who go round killing people usually have disturbed personal lives. But when, day after day, in three or four continents, many people commit extreme violence in the name of Islam, this cannot be accounted for by mental illness alone. In parts of the Middle East, near where the founder of Christianity lived and died, the murder of priests and other Christians by Muslims is systematic. The word “absurd” does not describe it. It does not fit here in Europe either. As so often, it was the Jews who suffered first. Since 1994, when Islamist bombers attacked Balfour House, a Jewish community centre in London, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charitable organisation, has offered protection to all Jewish buildings which request it. British Jews do not regard the violence which threatens them as “absurd”. They know only too well that it is pre-meditated, inspired by an extreme version of a major religion, practising what is called “the management of savagery” for its own ends. They feel they owe it to one another to protect themselves. Christians, of course, are taught to turn the other cheek. On the BBC *Today* programme on Wednesday, I heard the Catholic spokesman Austen Ivereigh say that “Anyone can walk in [to a church] and kill a priest”, so there was nothing to be done. Jews were different, he said, rather uncertainly, because they are “in the front line”. Suppose that priests, or other Christians, in Europe are placed in that front line. Suppose that Islamists, aware that “anyone can walk in and kill a priest”, start to do so on a large scale. Would it be reasonable for Mr Ivereigh, or even Pope Francis, to insist that the victims just accept it? That really would be absurd. Islamism is a most clear and determined attack on our civilisation, so this must be recognised, not evaded. Its adherents declaredly hate freedom, democracy, women’s rights, Judaism and Christianity. They entirely deny the rights of anyone (not least fellow Muslims) who does not share their views. They recognise no law except sharia. Out of the disorder of Iraq and Syria, they have forged a sharia-ruled entity which they call Islamic State – a showcase for all to see of their bloody idea of God-ruled civilisation. And lest anyone shrug this off by saying such a statelet cannot long survive, remember that several Islamic nations which practise notable, if less fanatical, brutality and intolerance are powerful in the world – Iran, Saudi Arabia, even Pakistan, where blasphemy is a capital offence. In large parts of Africa, organisations such as Boko Haram are trying to murder Christians and take power. Islamists cannot take power directly in Europe in the near future, because they have not got the numbers. But they can and do – in a way almost unimaginable only 20 years ago – kill and terrify. They can also, through mass immigration of Muslims, destablise us, even though the great majority of those Muslims have no desire to kill their hosts. This is well understood by the anti-Western President Erdogan of Turkey, who has now, thanks to Angela Merkel’s immigration policy, been given control of much of the migrant flow into Europe. The effect of the Islamist presence in the West – attacks on free speech, radicalisation in schools, forcing more women to cover their faces, let alone jihadist violence – is wholly bad. It is a civilisational question to work out how to deal with it. We need a firmer idea of what our Western civilisation is. The murder of Fr Hamel should surely be a reminder. First, our way of life is founded on civil peace. An aged man performing the most sacred rite of his religion of love is a poignant symbol of that peace. His murder is an atrocious violation of it. Second, our civilisation has Christian roots. Obviously it is true that many modern Westerners are not Christians. It is also true that Christians have, in the past, killed others and one another with shocking glee. But it is not possible to understand or uphold European or American ideas of law, liberty, government, education, family, morality or culture without tracing their relation to the life and teachings of Jesus. The old word Christendom, though often disgraced by things done in its name, has reality. As a post-Vatican II ecumenical Christian, I have no difficulty in recognising and respecting Islam as a shared monotheism; but, as a beneficiary of Western civilisation, I feel deeply grateful that Charles Martel won the battle of Tours against the invading Islamic army in 732. Our way of life is partly founded on the fact that we repelled Islamic incursions for many centuries. And although I may accept that Saladin was a chivalrous prince and Muslim Spain was a lot more tolerant than the Catholic reconquista, I am entitled not to want my early-morning sleep disturbed by the muezzin and our children made to learn the Koran. I am not being “Islamophobic”: I just want to maintain our historic amalgam of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, our civilisation based on the Bible and the Enlightenment and the tense, but productive conversation between the two. The threat from Islamist extremism to all of this is as plain as a pikestaff – or rather, a scimitar. So we urgently need decent, moderate leaders who recognise this danger and can proudly retell the story of our civilisation. Otherwise, we get unpleasant, immoderate leaders who do it in their own, wrong way. In Britain, David Cameron was exceptionally outspoken on the subject, and has been under-praised for his clarity. He called the battle against Islamist extremism, violent and non-violent, “the generational struggle of our time”. We do not yet know what the cautious Mrs May, the vicar’s daughter, will have to say. In France, the leadership of the self-consciously lay republic is effectively speechless in the face of fanaticism. In Germany, the pastor’s daughter Angela Merkel, says the problem is not too much Islam, but too little Christianity. The sentiment does her faith credit, but leaders should ward off preventable evils. It is not un-Christian to be vigilant against the Islamist threat, any more than it was to guard against Soviet communism during the Cold War. Barack Obama has centred his foreign policy on the idea that the West is what is wrong with the world, and has refused to let the word “Islam” pass his lips in relation to violence. His evasion of reality has left the way open for the belligerent rantings of Donald Trump. On Thursday, accepting the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton outlined a portrait of her politics. At least, unlike her predecessor, she speaks of “dealing with determined enemies who must be defeated”. At least, unlike Mr Trump, she understands that “America is great because America is good” rather than just because it is big. But this is not much to go on. Our leaders need to tell us a lot more about how to save the West. It is getting late. ------------------------------ [image: Avast logo] <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmb2RzNWsxBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0Njk5MTgzMDA-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNDAybmQ0BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQ2OTkxODMwMA--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
