Monday, July 18, 2005
Effective measures
Some timely food for thought rounded off Charles Krauthammer's latest Washington Post column:
"Decadence is defined not by a civilization's art or music but ultimately by its willingness to simply defend itself."
The London attacks may have spurred this kind of thinking amongst political writers around the globe.
The genus of the same idea seems apparent in the July 16 offering of The Australian's Greg Sheridan:
"Whether the West has the ideological strength to respond to a deadly challenge was a question the communists and the Nazis both asked, and al-Qa'ida and its fellow travellers ask it today."
As in the respective struggles against Nazism and communism we can assume that, regarding the effectiveness or otherwise of various responses, painful trial will inevitably reap painful error. The important thing is to learn and move forward.
That idea echoed when I read the criticism proferred by Daniel Pipes in his discussion of the 2004 British government-commissioned report "Young Muslims and Extremism":
"(The report) draws on MI5 information to make this astonishing statement:'... (T)he number of British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, whether at home or abroad or supporting such activity, is extremely small and estimated at less than 1% (pdf 2, p. 9).'
"If one accepts the report's estimate (pdf 2, p. 5) that the Muslim population of Great Britain numbers 1.6 million, then up to 16,000 'British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity.'
"Extremely small"? Excuse me ...
"That the British authorities do not recognize that they should worry about thousands of terrorists in their midst is reason to worry what planet they inhabit. ..."
Since the London attacks some interesting ideas and prospective anti-terrorism measures have come to public attention - not only in England noting, for example, today's investigation of bomb-making and terrorist how-to books on sale in a Sydney Islamic book store.
Further:
- Countries like England and Egypt appear to be cooperating with respect to a key deportation in the case, and laws may be strengthened to stop hate preachers entering and operating in Britain.
- The university campus connection to the London bombings has been publicly highlighted.
- Authorities are encouraging and enabling moderate Muslims to take active measures warding against the commission of hate crimes.
- New laws enabling law enforcement agencies to monitor and take action against terror suspects and their suppliers are under discussion.
So far, so good.
