Democratic foreign policy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6205050.stm

Demos, a 'think-tank' of unknown political orientation, says that British ministers (there are about 20 frontline departemental ministers) have not spent enough time chit-chatting with our muslim brethren. According to this august coven, the dilatoriness of our top politicians has the effect of driving the muslims into islamo-imperialist views.

Consider for a moment how stupid that is. First of all, 'muslims' do not constitute a separate nation within Britain. Policies in 'the national interest' are engaged in for the benefit of all of us; that includes those people in Britain who happen to be muslim. So a pretence on the part of politicians to engage in a separate discourse with muslims about THEIR 'national interests' would be wrong. Whether muslims like it or not, Britain is governed for all British people.

Also utterly stupid is the acceptance that somehow the war in Iraq is about islam. The Iraq war may have many policy fathers, but a plan to 'attack muslims' is not one of them. The blame for the widespread acceptance of that superlatively stupid proposition is one that can be squarely laid at the door of the left-wing press and broadcasters of Britain. For some reason, as soon as the islamists in Britain and round the world started saying that the war in Iraq was part of a worldwide attack on islam, the lefty press took up the refrain. Good plan. The worst thing to do with a paranoic is agree with him. A whole castle in the air has been built on this lie- convenient for the left who don't like Mr Blairs wars, but disastrous for those in Britain trying to keep good intra-communal relations.

Why would Demos come out with this now? During the recent Hizbollah-Israeli conflict, a group of so-called muslim community representatives wrote a letter interpreting the bombing of tubes as a necessary result of ignoring muslim views about foreign policy. For the first time, the political classes in Britain rose up almost as one to condemn them for this obvious attempt at blackmail. Will they do the same now in regard to Round 2?