Mirror.co.uk
8 July 2005
Extracted from:
Mirror.co.uk
WE CANNOT SURRENDER
States which shelter these
killers will know no peace
By Christopher Hitchens
.. . .
We
know very well what the "grievances" of the
jihadists are.
The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of
the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the
Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy,
which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance
of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in
London. The grievance of the existence of black African
Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The
grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance
of music, and of most representational art. The grievance
of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East
Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these
have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or
apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
FOR a few moments yesterday, Londoners received a taste
of what life is like for the people of Iraq and
Afghanistan, whose Muslim faith does not protect them
from slaughter at the hands of those who think they are
not Muslim enough, or are the wrong Muslim.
It is a big mistake to believe this is an assault on
"our" values or "our" way of life. It
is, rather, an assault on all civilisation. I know
perfectly well there are people thinking, and even
saying, that Tony Blair brought this upon us by his
alliance with George Bush.
A word of advice to them: try and keep it down, will you?
Or wait at least until the funerals are over. And beware
of the non-sequitur: you can be as opposed to the Iraq
operation as much as you like, but you can't get from
that "grievance" to the detonating of
explosives at rush hour on London buses and tubes.
Don't even try to connect the two. By George Galloway's
logic, British squaddies in Iraq are the root cause of
dead bodies at home. How can anyone bear to be so wicked
and stupid? How can anyone bear to act as a megaphone for
psychotic killers?
The grievances I listed above are unappeasable, one of
many reasons why the jihadists will lose.
They demand the impossible --- the cessation of all life
in favour of prostration before a totalitarian vision.
Plainly, we cannot surrender. There is no one with whom
to negotiate, let alone capitulate.
We shall track down those responsible. States that
shelter them will know no peace. Communities that shelter
them do not take forever to discover their mistake. And
their sordid love of death is as nothing compared to our
love of London, which we will defend as always, and which
will survive this with ease.
.
Christopher
Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair.
Earlier Date Reply Archive Return
to TIEA.us
|
