The FCO must do more to stem the bloodshed
Fraser Nelson 10:54am
The Foreign Office has kindly responded to my Telegraph piece from last week, which suggested that they could do more to confront the
religious cleansing sweeping the Middle East. In an extended version of a letter he has sent to the paper, the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt says
that his department is doing plenty:
‘Concrete examples include: Iraq, where the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have raised religious freedoms and where the FCO is funding a further meeting of the High Council of Religious Leaders; Algeria where I recently met a delegation of Christian leaders to discuss the challenges they are facing; Egypt where the Deputy Prime Minister has raised our concerns direct with the Prime Minister; and further afield, in Pakistan where we have been working closely with the Minister for Minorities to increase the profile of religious freedom.’
But I’m afraid the response only shows just how far the FCO has to go. Take Iraq, where the FCO is ‘funding a further meeting of the High Council of Religious Leaders’. Does it really think this will make the slightest difference to the number of Christians being executed by Salafi militias? A thousand have been killed by the sectarian violence there, and two-thirds of the 1.4 million Christians have now fled. The only thing left for Britain to do is grant them asylum, not sponsor talking shops for religious leaders.
Egypt is midway into becoming an Iraq. This time last year, Islamist fanatics were targeting Coptic churches. One Arab Spring later, and the Egyptian military is now mowing down Christians. It’s great that Nick Clegg is expressing his concerns to the Egyptian Prime Minister about the unfolding bloodshed, but his chances of making the slightest bit of difference are comparable to a snowball’s chance of floating all the way down the Nile.
Burt says he ‘met a delegation of Christian leaders to discuss the challenges they are facing’ in Algeria on 26 Oct. That's good to hear. But it’s not going to have much effect if William Hague doesn’t even raise the subject when he travels to Algeria (which he didn’t). It’s no good listening to concerns if they’re not passed on. Although Algeria, it should be said, is far from the worst offender.
So what should the FCO be doing? It should stop religious repression long before it gets to the Iraq/Egyptian phase where massacres are taking place. In my Telegraph piece I gave a few suggestions:
1) Deny aid to any country that does not allow freedom of religious practice (to anyone: Jews, Bahais, Christians, Sunnis).
2) Publish an annual report on religious freedom, which would send a clear message about how seriously Britain takes this.
3) Make clear that promoting religious freedom is regarded as a means of conflict prevention, because the next wars are as likely to be within countries as between them.
And what about William Hague giving a speech devoted to this? Nicholas Sarkozy has already called it ‘religious cleansing’, and Hague — the best speaker in Parliament — could make an even bigger impression.
I’d concur with one of the clergymen I most admire, the former Bishop of Rochester Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali. Born in Pakistan, he knows the problem of religious sectarianism as well as anyone, and his letter to the Telegraph appears under the minister’s:
‘The so called Arab Spring may be a winter for Christians, women and other groups. The demands of the shari’a in the areas of blasphemy, apostasy, freedom of worship and of expression will further exacerbate the position of Christians and other non-Muslims. It is time now not just for the “quiet diplomatic word” but for action at an international level to secure the future of religious minorities in the Islamic world.’
What Burt has done is good, but is nowhere near enough. He’s a good minister, and Hague is one of the government’s best talents. Together, reformulating their policy, they could ensure that Britain leads the world in confronting this new evil.
P.S. The Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission has spent years calling for the Foreign Office to beef up its focus on religious freedom, most recently in this report. It suggested that the government 'appoint a special envoy for international freedom of religion
and belief in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and re-establish an FCO Freedom of Religion Panel to advise the Government on violations of religious freedom and methods of promoting religious
freedom'.
Previous
PayDirt
December 28th, 2011 11:19am Report this commentHow much of this "evil" is the irrationality of religion and how much the response of perceived if simple-minded injustice in the minds of those committing the violence? The answer should affect the decision on how to respond. Christian reponse would be to turn the other cheek, in other words martyrdom. A more rational response would be to work towards to common understanding, these are after all Abrahamic religions. Bush/Blair were warned they risked unleashing the horrors of sectarian violence, they dreamt of a better world, but it does not exist.
Noa
December 28th, 2011 11:56am Report this commentFraser.
I'm very pleased to see that your considered and rational article has received the attention, respect and response that it deserves.
It can of course be argued that it does not go far enough. Other measures can and should be considered; up to and including the cessation of indirect aid, trade, the withdrawl of UK entry to citizens, including the cessation of immigration and repatriation of their nationals, and the cessation of diplomatic relations with such countries.
Active direct support, including re-directed foreign aid, should be made available to those persecuted and asylum status granted in preference to less acceptable applicants.
The UK must of course use its influence and weight in the UN to ensure international condemnation and action against all states which permit or enable the persecution and murder of their citizens and demand equality for all under their laws.
But, in turning the attention of the Government to these matters and initiating the re-direction of the FCO's resources accordingly. You have directly helped to make a very commendable start.
Well done.
Nicholas
December 28th, 2011 12:06pm Report this commentI can't imagine any British minister speaking out on this when they are so terrified of upsetting ethnic and religious minorities here (but mainly the lefty "outrage" lobbies that presume to speak on their behalf). At best it would immediately be characterised as "favouring" Christianity and "offending" all the other religions. At worst as religious or even racial discrimination. Regardless of the rights and wrongs the leftist collective would seize on it, misrepresent it and then use it as a stick to beat the coalition. Look at the storm of "outrage" from all the usual suspects when government tried to acknowledge marriage in the tax system. There is no courage in government to protect Christians.
When these atrocities and persecutions are not even being reported by the BBC how can the government be expected to raise their profile? And what about that New Labour stooge Rowan-Williams? As the head of our Christian church (supposedly) what is he doing about this? Oh, yes, of course, he is more interested in bankers paying themselves big bonuses.
No, they have been well and truly hoist on their own petard. The time for championing Christian rights by Britain and in Britain has long passed. We are a now a multi-cultural society and over the last 15 years the government has constrained itself from doing or saying anything that runs counter to that, mainly thanks to Tony Blair and New Labour. Far from resulting in an equal treatment it has resulted in the Christian church being pushed to the back of the queue.
kevin
December 28th, 2011 12:19pm Report this commentPerhaps a good start would be to worry about religious cleansing nearer at home where hopefully something effective could be done. Tower Hamlets, Bradford, Leicester are easy examples.
Tanuki
December 28th, 2011 12:23pm Report this commentDoes the UK actually have a dog in this particular fight? I think not.
Supporting a particular side in sectarian wars is always a loser (witness our involvement in the 1990s Balkans debacle for evidence).
Leave Egypt to the Egyptians, Syria to the Syrians etc. to sort out.
Julian F
December 28th, 2011 1:02pm Report this commentWe could do worse than to offer safe haven to persecuted Christians from the Middle East. It might go some way to atone for our horrifying failure to offer such to the persecuted Jews of Europe immediately after the War.
Peter From Maidstone
December 28th, 2011 1:08pm Report this commentI agree that it would be counter-productive to explicitly be seen to defend only the ancient Christian communities in the Middle East and North Africa. But all trade agreements and aid arrangements could and should be made contingent on the defense of minority rights. Not the pretend rights we have in the UK, but the right not be blown up while worshipping, or run down by an Army vehicle.
It should also be easy for Christians to find a safe haven in the UK. At present it seems very difficult, as I am personally aware.
daniel maris
December 28th, 2011 1:30pm Report this commentWhy wouldn't my post that referred to Sharia post but this does...
Griffin
December 28th, 2011 1:32pm Report this comment"...executed by Salafi militias". That's something of a euphemism. "Executed" used to mean put to death after some sort of judicial process. This is nothing less than murder by mob, committed under the influence of perverted religious fanaticism.
Hexhamgeezer
December 28th, 2011 1:38pm Report this commentThe truth is that the FCO has neither the heart nor the stomach for a fight it doesn't believe in. Sponsoring talking shops are just the flimsiest of fig leaves whose sole intention is to provide space filling for responses to articles and letters such as yours.
Verity
December 28th, 2011 2:59pm Report this commentNicholas, you write: "New Labour stooge Rowan-Williams? As the head of our Christian church (supposedly) what is he doing about this? Oh, yes, of course, he is more interested in bankers paying themselves big bonuses."
Fie! He is also deeply involved in the creation of a permanent memorial on church property to the louche communist, welfare-receiving scum of the earth who "occupied" the premises for however many weeks, for whatever reason.
How did he get promoted to Archbish when he is clearly a destructive, rabid non-believer?
Verity
December 28th, 2011 3:04pm Report this commentForget safe havens. Britain is full up with people who are not linked to our country genetically and this has already done horrible damage to our cohesiveness as a people. Canada is a vast, vast (bigger than the US) country and has only around 35m people (against the smaller United States, with 300m).
In Britain, we need to be thinking of shovelling people out wholesale, not importing more, no matter how deserving, as long as there are countries with vastly more space.
Edward Sutherland
December 28th, 2011 3:30pm Report this commentFraser: You have obviously touched a raw nerve at the FCO. Please keep up the pressure on these instinctive appeasers. As Noa sensibly points out, foreign aid should be witheld from those countries where persecution takes place, and asylum claims from persecuted minorities, Christian or otherwise, should be given priority.
Tom Gallagher
December 28th, 2011 3:55pm Report this commentWithout too much further deterioration in the Middle East situation, it is quite possible to envisage the leading countries of the democratic West being put under pressure to agree to accept perhaps up to 10 million Christians from the area.
I could imagine many of the Anglophone countries responding generously but it would not surprise me if Britain dragged its feet.
A case could be made that political refugees from the Middle East who were mainly fleeing because of persecution at the hands of local Muslims would destabilise the hard-won and precious multi-cultural settlement that had Muslims from south Asia at the very heart of it.
I can imagine the case being put forcefully by middle-ranking Foreign Office mandarins recruited under New Labour that Britain has changed too fundamentally to be able to cope with the influx of traditional Christians perhaps harbouring some degree of animus towards the Muslim faith.
I expect the issue of a wholesale evacuation of Middle Eastern Muslims will be before the United nations in 2012 and due to the radical changes in the character of urban life in diferent parts of Britain, the world may well be informed that at this particular moment, Britain simply finds itself full up. Of course, aftee this particular emergency has passed, new stats may convenientely surface that prove the contrary.
Ed P
December 28th, 2011 4:13pm Report this commentA little transposition might help to see clearly how despicable these anti-Christians are. Imagine Christian militias burning mosques and murdering Muslims in the UK. How would Egypt and Iraq, etc., react? Just a pathetic trade embargo?
And similar persecutions are happening in many places around the world - Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia, etc. These will not be solved or stopped by trade embargoes either.
Mark
December 28th, 2011 5:01pm Report this commentWell done Fraser for poking the Foreign Office on these under-reported atrocities. Like others, I'm afraid the Christian Church does not get a fair deal from our institutions of state, being too obsessed with left-liberal agendas and the distorted view of "equalities" that accompanies them. The FCO needs to wake up before it is too late.
Pedant
December 28th, 2011 5:05pm Report this comment"a snowball’s chance of floating all the way down the Nile" is actually huge, it just won't look like a snowball for the journey, but its constituent parts (H2O) will all make the end point!
In2minds
December 28th, 2011 5:05pm Report this commentA safe haven for Christians, but where? As already pointed out it can't be Tower Hamlets, Luton or Bradford can it?
Noa
December 28th, 2011 6:14pm Report this commentA safe haven is already in existance within Iraq and UK government pressure should be exerted to ensure its maintenance, establishment and expansion through UN and other auspices.
*ttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=83780
fergus pickering
December 28th, 2011 6:39pm Report this commentWhy on earth should we stem the bloodshed, Fraser? What's in it for us? I suggest masterly inactivity. A pity we didn't try that earlier. Anyway we need our troops to fight the French with. Or the Germans. Or the Scots - not YOU of course Fraser, but you're not REALLY Scots, are you?
TrevorsDen
December 28th, 2011 8:07pm Report this commentIn so far that we wish to pursue influence then aid is certainly a main weapon. But too many want to see aid abolished. if we did then all we could indeed do is moan and wring our hands.
daniel maris
December 28th, 2011 9:02pm Report this commentWill my post get through if I don't mention various crucial words?
daniel maris
December 28th, 2011 9:04pm Report this commentWhy is there censorship on this thread? I put together a perfectly sane and reasoned post which referred to the persecution originally referenced in the post and my post keeps getting blocked. As soon as I remove certain key words, my post gets through.
Couldn't the Spectator tells us what the banned words of combination of words is?
Augustus
December 28th, 2011 9:21pm Report this commentIt took Europe seven centuries to go from the many revolutionary events and seemingly unending wars of the Dark Ages towards a new world of science, individual freedom and democracy. But none of us can say with any optimism or certainty how the massive convulsions of the Arab-Muslim world might eventually cease with the emergence of a newer and better arrangement for the people there as occurred in Europe. We might find the events we are witnessing in this part of the world when taken together form a pattern and may be explained historically, and we should do as much as we can to protect ourtselves from the convulsions of the Arab-Muslim world.
Axstane
December 29th, 2011 12:03am Report this commentI am not a follower of any god or gods as I see all such as primitive superstitions and their adherents as being responsible for some of the most bloody wars and genocides in history. However, I am decidedly in favour of free worship of any religion that promotes a strong moral code. That sets me dead against those religions that do not permit the co-existence of rival worship. In our world today those who will seek to prevent others from following a different faith have been mostly Muslims starting with the Turkish genocide of Christian Armenians in 1915. It is true, of course, that various Islamic sects also kill each other fervently but it is idle to discuss the lack of religious tolerance in the Middle East , Far East and Africa without realising that the aggressors, the offenders, are almost always Muslims. The reason is not hard to find since their Koran apparently tells them to kill infidels and apostasy is punishable by death.____Christians have been far from free of guilt in thes matters in the past but have gradually learned that religious violence is ungodly.____If Egypt fails to put a stop to he indiscriminate killing of Copts a widespread campaign asking Britons not to visit Egypt for holidays will rapidly bring them to their senses. That would be a start. Withdrawal of foreign aid from other intolerant governments will also bring them to heel. Regrettably there is a group of states who will deal on friendly terms with the most vile of foreign dictators, kleptocrats and theocrats. Venezuela of course and Cuba, the discreditable regime in South Africa, North Korea and now, astonishingly, Brazil. The last is very strange since its current president was herself a great sufferer under a corrupt and murderous regime.
Verity
December 29th, 2011 2:55am Report this commentNoa sums it up: "Other measures can and should be considered; up to and including the cessation of indirect aid, trade, the withdrawl of UK entry to citizens, including the cessation of immigration and repatriation of their nationals, and the cessation of diplomatic relations with such countries."
Yes!
Verity
December 29th, 2011 2:59am Report this commentNicholas - "I can't imagine any British minister speaking out on this when they are so terrified of upsetting ethnic and religious minorities here ...".
They were a time bomb knowingly imported for the calculated destruction of an ancient, settled, kindly and brave people.
Verity
December 29th, 2011 3:23am Report this commentAugustus whines "It took Europe seven centuries to go through many revolutionary events" etc.
Pre-electronic communications, that is, before we in the West developed them.
With all the electronic technology invented by us, it should have taken the islamics about 25 minutes to get a handle on the basics of civilisation.
They can't cope.
And making it even worse, their one resource, oil, is only useful, and thus of value, due to the brilliance of the Western mind.
Ostrich (occasionally)
December 29th, 2011 1:01pm Report this commentdaniel maris 28th, 1:30pm
"Why wouldn't my post that referred to Sharia post but this does..."
'cos the moderators are on hols and don't want to be faced with a backlog of gumph when they get back - o-oh, sometime in mid-January, so they've just set the filters a lot tighter???
DavidCage
December 31st, 2011 8:07am Report this commentWe are now so far down the scale surely it is now up to Brazil to take over the lead in this role. Let us just make the FCO history now that we no longer are a world force.
Back to top