The Vanishing Vote
‘HAVING succeeded in ousting the incumbent government in Madrid, we can surely expect the murderers of al-Qaeda to try a similar ploy in the run-up to elections in Britain.
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| If the mountain won’t go to Tony, Tony will blow it up |
The trouble they have is that the main opposition party, the Tories, are by and large in complete agreement with the Government on Iraq and the so-called War on Terror.
However, Tony Blairs stance on these issues has alienated a large section of Britains Muslim community, three quarters of whom voted Labour at the last election.
A poll by the Guardian found that only 38% would vote Labour in an election tomorrow, with most Muslims defecting to the Liberal Democrats and a significant number to the Tories.
Opposition to the war in Iraq runs high among Britains 1.6m Muslims and there is widespread scepticism about the motives of the United States.
At the end of the day, says Iqbal Sacranie, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, its a Muslim population around the world on the receiving end of trouble and bias in terms of US policy.
One might point out that it was a Muslim population in Bosnia and in Kosovo on whose side the US and its allies intervened.
One might also observe that the man responsible for the greatest loss of Muslim life in recent years has been former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
And, with 13% of the British Muslims (questioned admittedly before the recent Madrid bombings) saying they believed further attacks on the US would be justified, one might wonder what on earth the justification religious or otherwise can be for the deliberate massacre of innocents.’
Posted: 15th, March 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
