Miranda Devine in the Sydney Morning Herald (thanks to Gold) explains why the global mujahedin will never be satisfied by appeasement, and why Australia shouldn’t cower before Al-Qaeda the way Spain has.
The alternative is to turn our backs on the world’s only superpower, base our foreign policy on the whims of Osama bin Laden and still be on the terrorist hit list, for the simple fact we are a nation of “infidels”. We were already top of the pops with bin Laden anyway, since he singled out “crusader Australian forces” in a videotape aired in November 2001, well before the invasion of Iraq, because of our role in the United Nations-led liberation of East Timor. The terrorist attack in Bali, which killed 88 Australians, had nothing to do with Iraq, either. . . .
It is always tempting to respond to the seductive siren call of the appeasers, drawing you to false hope that terrorism will disappear if only we are nice enough, tolerant and reasonable enough. Who doesn’t want a fear-free life?
That’s the siren call of Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who converted to Islam after being captured by the Taliban and who spoke at the University of Sydney this week about “media lies and manipulation” in the war on terrorism.
On Tuesday she told John Laws on radio 2UE: “As a journalist I would like to ban that word [terrorism].” When asked if a suicide bomber was a martyr or a terrorist, she said: “A martyr is someone who gives up their life for a cause. People get so … hung up on words.”
And yet, later in the interview she claimed words are the solution. “Let’s go for the Irish situation and go for words not bombs … The only way to end the cycle of violence is to sit down and start talking. The Spanish people have led the way.”
But Ridley’s solution is a mirage. Bin Laden, in his statements since September 11, 2001, has shown no interest in words: “The only language between you and us is the sword that will strike your necks,” he has said….
Bin Laden’s “letter to the American people”, published in 2002, is the closest to a coherent statement of demands: “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam. The second thing we call you to is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you … Reject fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and trading with interest.” Showing himself to be a bit of a greenie, he also listed as a grievance America’s “refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement”.
Al-Qaeda’s end goal is a pan-Islamic state, a new “caliphate”, a Muslim empire where sharia holy law reigns supreme. So those who want to follow Spain’s path of appeasement should also be ready to follow Ridley’s example and convert to Islam.