Blog by Shimon Samuels posted on The Times of Israel
24 May 2017
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-open-letter-to-prime-minister-teresa-may/#.WSVakIKjEds.gmail
Madam Prime Minister,
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre congratulates you on your unrelenting stand against the warped madness of anti-Western terrorism and, more specifically, the Manchester Arena atrocity.
Permit me a few worrying thoughts for you to consider:
– Now that ISIS has claimed credit for the perpetrator, Salman Abedi, we can expect to see heroic obituaries for the Jihadist assassin, perhaps born in the UK
– How then would you respond to the demand for a UK state lifetime pension for his possible dependent British widow and orphans?
– How would you react to the distribution of sweets to school children celebrating this “triumph over the Crusaders” in radical Islamic institutions from the Palestine Authority to Pakistan?
– How would you feel about the naming of a tournament, a football team or perhaps even a stadium in honour of the Manchester suicide martyr?
– Most galling could be the apologetic wave of media excuse for the perpetrator in view of his poverty, marginalization or discrimination, justifying his depravity as depression or even insanity
The Wiesenthal Centre, more than a decade ago, drafted a Convention against the suicide terrorism imported from the Middle East that was becoming viral.
The document’s thesis argued that terrorism in the age of Jihad is characterized by a continuum of participants that ideologize, recruit, finance, train, harbour,arm and heroize the assassin who is the final link.- whether in the mosque, the school or university campus, in jail or the media, both at home or abroad.
All elements along the chain must be deemed as accomplices and treated as such.
Our draft Convention was stamped with his seal ring by the late Pope John Paul in a Vatican audience. It was adopted as a motion by the Australian Parliament and blessed by the then Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Moratinos, a noted friend of the Musilm world. Indeed, it was well-received by then Turkish President, Abdullah Guhl, in our visit to Ankara. He made the point that most suicide – terror victims were murdered in the world of Islam.
Sadly, Muslim demographics in Europe, the Caliphate/Islamic State, radicalization, the Internet and social media – whether a spontaneous lone wolf or planned by a group – have empowered Jihad to arrive at the door to a ‘theatre” in each of our neighbourhoods.
President Trump took a strong anti-terror stance in Riyadh, as have you, Madame Prime Minister, regarding Manchester.
The situation now requires a new anti-Terror Alliance,to concentrate on all its emanations as the venomous tentacles of a giant squid or the poisonous roots of a single tree – whether they be ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas,Islamic Jihad, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Houthi or Boko Haram Profile sharing must flow from Washington to London, Ryad to Jerusalem.
The Terror-Axis targets a consortium of declared enemies that include Western values in America and Europe, Jews, Christians, moderate Muslims, gays, etc., without remorse for women and child victims.
A truly integrated anti-Terror Alliance must neutralize every member along the chain of complicity. Perhaps it is time to take our Convention out of the moth-ball cupboard.
Most respectfully.