From the editor’s desk

Respect difference, teach unity

The conviction of three British Muslim men of a plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, and of a fourth for a related conspiracy, has told the world how close it came to reliving the horrific trauma of 9/11 when four American airliners were used as flying bombs. It is not clear how many aircraft the British conspirators hoped to bring down, but the death toll could have exceeded the 2,993 (including 19 terrorists) who died in those 2001 attacks. As happened after the so-called 7/7 and 21/7 attacks in London in 2005, this case draws attention to a small number of very disaffected young British men of Pakistani origin who invoke their religion to justify mass attacks on innocent people. Leaders of the Muslim community welcomed the verdicts, as did many ordin-ary British Muslims, but undoubtedly there are still potential terrorists at large. A significant fringe of Muslims in Britain either sympathise with them or are at least ambivalent.

People are wrong to blame Pakistan for what is in fact a British problem, even if some or all of the terrorists were recruited while visiting it. The problem arises from the failure, first, of the British Muslim community itself to ensure its young men understand fully the tenets of their faith so they cannot be so easily seduced by the pernicious anti-Western ideology of al-Qaeda. Secondly, it arises from the failure of the host society to inculcate its values to each new generation of young Muslims. As before, some of those convicted left “martyrdom” videos in which they ranted at the West for invading “our lands” – namely Iraq and Afghanistan – and threatened to continue their terrorist campaign until Britain changed its foreign policy. That is such a misreading of the way British minds work that it raises a question over how people who have lived in the United Kingdom all their lives could still know so little about the democratic country in which they were born. As has become recently apparent, many Muslim parents send their children to Catholic schools to the extent that in some of them, Catholic children are in a minority. While respecting the pupils’ own faith, it is vital such schools encourage the sound teaching to all their pupils of British (and Christian) values including an understanding of British (and Christian) history. This is the country that could not be bombed into submission by the Luftwaffe, and which spent centuries overcoming religious conflicts.

Catholic attitudes to Muslims and members of other faiths have changed out of all recognition in two generations or less. Although it is not always easy to see, there is a link between how neighbours of different faiths treat each other on the street, and how leaders of faith communities behave towards each other at national or international level. The symbolism of top-level Muslim-Christian dialogue, such as that sponsored by the Dominicans in Rome (see Robert Mickens on page 8 of this issue), trickles down eventually to street level and into the classroom. It says that Muslims and Christians do not have to be in conflict but can respect each other and work together. The same message is propagated by Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation and other institutions with similar aims. It is all worthwhile, and its influence spreads far wider than those directly involved. Eventually it must reach even the militant fringe.