Address to Indian Muslim Federation – How To Defeat Terrorism
I want now to say a few words about a particular statement Mr. Blair made when he was prime minister. He said: “Muslims have a completely false sense of grievance against the West.” He spoke such nonsense because he was (as he still is) in a state of total denialof British foreign policy’s contribution to fuelling Muslim radicalisation.He ought not to have been in denial because he waswell advised by the Foreign Office. In May 2004, the most senior official at the Foreign Office, Permanent Secretary Sir Michael Jay,wrote a letter to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull. It was awarning to Prime Minister Blair and his ministersthat Britain’s foreign policy was fuelling Muslim extremism.We were not supposed to know about that letter but it was leaked.
If there was a prize for the most dangerously irresponsible statementof recent times, I would recommend that it be given to Mr. Blair for that statement. In my view, the least that can be said is that it cut the ground ? not all of it but some – from under the feet of British Muslim leaders who are trying to stop the drift to extremism in their communities, a drift caused in large part by British foreign policy, Blair’s policy.
A few words, too, about a statement some leaders of Britain’s Muslim community found the courage to make. In an advertisement placed in The Times, they said this: “People in the UK are being put at increased risk of attack by British foreign policy’s perceived unfairness.”
At the risk of inviting a knock on my own door in the dawn hours, I have to say I believe that statement was, is,a truth for our time. Unfortunatelyit was not a truth the Blair government could admit because doing so would have been to confess that it hadfailed in its prime duty?to protect and defend the citizens of this country.
This international conference was called to celebrate the 60thanniversary of India’s independence. That being so, and because I had the pleasure of being invited to India twice this year to speak and debate, I’d like to close by sharing with you two of my recent experiences of India today.
While I was in Delhi, my dear friend Zafar Saifullah (the former Secretary to the Cabinet of Central Government and the only Indian Muslim ever to occupy that position) arranged for me to have conversations over a buffet lunch with a number of former permanent secretaries ? the Indian Sir Humphrys of his time.
In the course of conversation with them, I said that unless central government could find a way to re-distribute the enormous wealth now being generated, I feared there would come a day when India would be torn apart by violence on a scale that would dwarf that seen anywhere in the world to date.The ultimate explosion of the despair of poverty for the many in the midst of plenty for the few.
I expected the Indian Sir Humphrys to say (whether they believed it or not) that my fear was without foundation and that my nightmare scenario for India could never happen. What they actually said was that they had the same fear, and that India’s greatest challenge was indeed to find a way to re-distribute the wealth now being created?.. There is, I suppose, reason for hope in the fact that Indian government ministers have spoken of their commitment to eradicating poverty. The question waiting for an answer is whether they (and their successors) have the political will to match their words. If they do, India could become a beacon of light for all of mankind.
In BangaloreI participated in an Empower India Conference organised by the Popular Front of India, and which apparently took a year to organise. The conference was three days of seminars, discussions and debates and the climax, on 17 February, was a public meeting in the grounds of the ShaheedTippuSultanNagarPalace. There are two reasons why I will never forget that particular 17 February. It was my 65thbirthday, the day I officially became an Old Man. It was also one of the most inspiring days of my eventful life.
The public meeting was attended by in excess 100,000 people. Quite a good number, but most impressive of all was the fact that about 80%of those who came to listen were young people. Unlike so many young people in so many nations, including this one, they were opting intoand not out ofpolitics. True they want newpolitic
s, but they were demonstrating their wish to participate.
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