The enemies of freedom

The threat to murder the kidnapped French journalists, unless France repeals its new law banning Muslim girls from wearing headscarves, is a sad but useful lesson to us that the extreme fundamentalist Islamic terrorists are basically enemies of freedom.

I am sure some people think that Islamic terrorist attacks only happen because Bush is President (never mind Sept 11 planning started before he was elected). Or that they are just a reaction to American imperialism or Israel’s occupation of disputed territories.

But the reality is that some (no not all) extreme fundamentalist Muslims want to destroy the secular (and unholy) West.

France oppossed the war in Iraq at every turn. They are known to be heavily pro-Arab in their foreign policy. They have no troops in Iraq. They have a large Muslim population who are full French citizens.

All they did is democratically decide to pass a law, reflecting that France is a secular country. Now I think the law is a bit daft, but it is France’s right as a democracy to pass it.

However these killers do not respect democracy. They do not respect separation of church and state. They believe they have the right to murder innocent civilians, just because they disapprove of a law. They think God says it is okay to murder people to blackmail a democratic country to change its laws.

I passionately hope that Iraq stabilises soon. I also hope we get a Palestinian State at peace with Israel. But I do not delude myself that either of these two things will stop the extreme fundamentalist killers, and their supporters. I wish I knew what would.