F-B-F.org -

Now, there is a dramatically different mood.
This is based on three achievements, all to Mr Howard’s credit He has reanimated the party machine. Even in the dark days, Tory central office was full of bright youngsters Then, however, there was no direction, no leadership That has all changed, utterly. This is why so many of the best and brightest Muslims in the world have flown to the West. In doing this they deprive their own countries and contribute further to global imbalances. For the truth is that even if the West were miraculously to comply with all the above, the rot within Muslim countries would still wreck the lives and aspirations of citizens. The WTO, the World Bank, the UN and others cannot carry on disproportionately benefiting the rich or playing by different rules for different nations.

As Noam Chomsky writes in his new book, Hegemony or Survival, we must get “universality; we must apply to ourselves the same standards we apply to others, if not more stringent ones.”We want human rights in Saudi Arabia? Yes. But we do not have the moral authority to demand these while hundreds are festering in Guantanamo Bay, US and UK prisons with no justice, or while allied soldiers in Iraq maltreat Iraqis and steal their resources, or when we promote pre-emptive actions and shoot to kill, or we prohibit weapons of mass destruction for some countries but not ourselves or Israel.That universality applies to Muslims too. They must fast acquire some humility, honesty and understanding. Laudable aims have been declared by Bush, and Blair, who went hand-shaking in Iraq this weekend.Old tyrants held in place with our support (Saudi Arabia) or without (Libya) have been put on warning: democracy and human rights will be implanted in despotic countries. This weekend Afghanistan moved in that direction with its Loya Jirga agreeing on a constitution. The best news is contained in Article 35, which states: “Formation or functioning of a party based on ethnicity, language, Islamic school of thought and region is not permissible.” This should be an example for Iraq.

It is worth noting that India and South Africa, which in relative terms are good, working democracies, are civic and secular.Joined-up thinking is urgently needed. Some of the warnings are likely to be manufactured for cynical political reasons; some of the material, obviously, is unreliable. But I have no doubt that there are plots to stage another spectacular and another and another, whatever we do to protect ourselves.In the long term, there will be a petering out There always is But our leaders must change direction now. The homes, the streets and the playgrounds of the well-off are tense and paranoid places.

It is possible that some of the frantic security measures today are instigated by set-ups. Al-Qa’ida and its satellites could well be doing what the IRA did for years – setting false trails and issuing threats that cause large-scale disturbance and economic damage – cleverly spacing these misleading clues between real explosions.God knows what they know – the CIA, FBI, MI5, MI6, French, German, Italian, Turkish, Russian, Pakistani, Afghan, Saudi Arabian secret services and many others beyond. Count the money spent, the way the target countries have had to stretch their national defence and policing services, the cost to airlines, tour operators, the hidden expenses when leads are followed-up to protect nationals.World public opinion too is volatile and the bombers have more support than Westerners care to acknowledge. Japanese pilots used themselves as weapons in the Second World War as did some of our own pilots of whom we think as brave. Tamil Tigers used young women suicide bombers, too.)Look what the bombers have achieved so far, in spite of the successful defeat of their power base in Afghanistan.