Donald Trump’s intervention, demanding the exclusion of Muslims from the USA, suits Daesh and its terrorist agenda very well. He is delivering the suspicion and the hatred that it craves: It is determined to present its grotesque violence as a war between the Muslim caliphate and Christendom. Trump has fallen right into the elephant trap that it dug for him. This tiny group of psychopaths believe themselves to be the only authentic expression of Islam. Trump has gone some way along the road to accepting their analysis and, in effect, presenting them with a badge of honour.
The same is true of all those constituents who have emailed me to demand an end to our programme of affording asylum to 20,000 vulnerable Syrians over the next five years. My correspondents believe that what happened in Paris makes it just too risky. Closing the programme -which we’ve only just started- would be another spectacular own-goal: Daesh would love it; the very idea of the ‘Christian’ west giving sanctuary to war-weary Muslims, runs utterly counter to their ideological narrative.
In any event, with 700 ‘home grown’ terrorists having left UK to fight for Daesh in Syria, the arrival of refugees, many of whom have fled Daesh’s terror, will itself be a powerful corrective to Daesh’s perverted version of events.
Daesh massacres Muslims. So, just as I believe that Muslim fighters should take the lion’s share of the endeavour to defeat Daesh on the battlefield, equally I believe that Muslims must take the lead in exposing the falsehood of its perverted ideology. It is for this reason that I am delighted to have received a Christmas card from the Imam at the Woodford Muslim community centre, wishing me God’s peace, mercy and blessings. The card points out that over 1.5 billion Muslims believe in Jesus Christ and his second coming. On the reverse of the card is the following statement
“Islam is a religion of peace, justice and tolerance. It rejects violence and condemns the killing of civilians anywhere in the world irrespective of their race or religion, even if Islam is insulted or ridiculed”
Now, that is a much more effective antidote to Daesh and its poison.