Walid Phares
Author: Walid Phares
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: April 17, 2007

“It is very troubling
to see that in the heart of Western democracies, a deep ignorance of historical
and ideological facts still exists, even among leaders charged with the global
defense of democracy.” So says
British Minister Fails the War of
Ideas
Walid
Phares
In a speech on British policy on Terrorism, the international
development secretary of the
In a
"By letting them feel
part of something bigger, we give them strength." Hilary
Benn
1. Mr. Benn
said "the phrase gives a shared identity to
small groups with widely differing aims." He added: "And because this isn't us against one organized
enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives."
Mr. Benn should know better. When Jihadi cells grow and
operate in
2. Mr. Benn goes on to
say: "What these groups want is to force
their individual and narrow values on others, without dialogue, without debate,
through violence. And by letting them feel part of something bigger, we give
them strength."
These "groups" are not a collection of individuals engaged in
personal quest for glory or banditry. The Jihadists who massacred British
citizens on
3. Mr. Benn attempts to
replace the current definition of the War by stating that it is "the vast majority of the people in the world"
against "a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have
relatively little in common."
While this equation should be the objective of international
society, that is, to isolate the Jihadists worldwide and within the Arab Muslim
world, it is nevertheless not yet reality. The Jihadists are converging onto one
global objective, have many things in common and even after the vanishing of
their leaders continue in the same direction. At the same time, their foes are
of different backgrounds, left wing and right wing, liberal and
conservatives, from various ethnicities and, ironically, not unified, not
coordinating and lacking a universal vision of the struggle against Jihadism. M.
Benn should have recognized reality first, "what is" before offering what all of
us in the international community wish for, the "what
should."
4. In his most strange statement, Minister Benn "urges world leaders to find common ground with potential enemies, rather than relying on "hard" military power. The fight for the kind of world that most people want can, in the end, only be won in a different battle - a battle of values and ideas."
As the author of the
book The War of Ideas, I cannot
agree more with the proposition that winning the conflict with Jihadism needs
success in ideological and intellectual battles. It is certainly true that hard
military power alone cannot solve this crisis. Hence, my criticism of those
theories describing this war as a police operation only. So Mr. Benn and many
who espouse his views must make a choice: either this war on Terror is
essentially a War of ideas or it is a massive police effort against some small
factions. One cannot go both ways. If this is a "battle of ideas," the public
needs to know between which set of ideas? The same logic used by Mr. Benn, et
al, to reject the concept of a war against "Terrorism" also rejects the idea
that this conflict is simply against "bad guys." One cannot serve half the
truth.
Yes, the Jihadists are bad guys because of their misdeeds, but
they have a worldview and doctrines to which they refer in their indoctrination
and recruitment. Mr. Benn cannot ignore this ideology. If he wishes to get rid
of the concept of a "War on Terror," we have no problem with it, as long as he
proposes something more intelligent and analytical. He criticizes President Bush
for adopting the unclear idea of "Terror" but replaces it by an even more
simplistic concept of "narrow values." And to completely fail the test, the
British minister doesn't even identify these "narrow"
matters.
5. Ironically, the
Jihadist ideologues would find Mr. Benn's statements perfect. For the Terror
leaders’ main objective is to see their foes learning less and less about their
(Jihadists) ideology, strategies and plans. The enemies of liberal democracies
and of the UK wish to see British (but also American) politicians moving away
from the concept of War on Terror, and not seeing the Jihadists as Global and
coordinated. That is exactly what the Terrorists want: If the British and their
allies reduce their perception of the conflict to "police operations" or pretend
their enemies are much smaller than reality, they would be fighting a war
with obsolete weapons and almost no strategic vision. What better gift can Bin
Laden and Ahmedinijad hope for?
6. Finally, Mr. Benn
says: "in the
Unlike some of his colleagues in the cabinet, and regardless
of the domestic debate in
******
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Walid Phares is a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington and the director of its Future Terrorism Project. He is author of the newly released “The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy”.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of The Family Security Foundation, Inc.