Yes, American foreign policy is a laughing-stock abroad, but that means at least some of the reaction is funny. British commentator Douglas Murray discusses the new American counter-terrorism strategy, which, in its written form, never mentions “Islam.” Terrorist-inspiring religious extremism is a problem, says Secretary of State John Kerry, for all religions. Which has Mr. Murray worried about what’s going on with those Anglicans.
From Douglas Murray, Why does the US’s new counter-extremism strategy ignore the only salient issue? | Coffee House, The London Spectator:
The USA has a new CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) strategy. It is a typically curious document. I wonder in fact if the key to it does not lie in the foreword by John Kerry, which is accompanied by a photograph of the Secretary of State looking strangely stoned.
Although in that foreword Secretary Kerry claims that ‘our challenge is dynamic’, he seems to have got that all the wrong way around. Certainly America’s enemies are dynamic. But on the evidence of this document the US government is quite supremely blissed-out.
For instance, readers will be unsurprised to learn that in this 12-page document purporting to deal with one of the great security issues of our time, the word ‘Islam’, let alone ‘Muslim’, does not appear once. Why should it when, as this strategy says:
‘Violent extremists speaking a variety of languages, born of many races and ethnic groups, and belonging to diverse religions continue to recruit, radicalize, and mobilize people — especially young people — to engage in terrorist acts.’
It could happen to any of us, you see. Last weekend I walked past a beautiful Anglican church in an English market-town. Only looking back on this now do I realise how close I came to being radicalised. What turn might my life have undergone if I had entered in? There would probably have been a recruiter right there and then – probably high church. Within weeks they would have shoved a thurible into my trembling hands, showing me how to work it even in the heat of battle. What misery might I then have wreaked? It really makes you think.
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