The always impressive Islamic expert Professor Raphael Israeli has come up with a blueprint for a new, moral world order. Instead of the corrupt terror club of the United Nations he proposes the formation of an alliance of Western and Democratic States (AWADS), at the centre of which would be the US, Canada, Australia and Western Europe, and which other countries could only join provided they met the political and moral criteria of democratic values, respect for human life and the rule of law. As he says:

'This system may sidetrack the chaotic situation in the UN today, where politics and shifting majorities, composed of dictatorships for the most part, determine the moral and other standards of behaviour in the world body. Durban 2001, should remain for ever a warning to the level of hatred and bigotry that the UN today is capable of stooping to'.

Such an arrangement would provide powerful incentives to countries perpetrating tyranny and terror to alter their practices. For as Prof Israeli correctly observes, the 'putrid' UN, whch rewards rogue states by giving them global status, prestige and power, provides every incentive for hatred and state terror.

This mad world order, however, has got such a grip on public consciousness and twisted its values so badly that Prof Israeli's detailed prescription for a return to moral health will strike many, as he himself observes, as harsh. He suggests severe restrictions on immigration and tourism from states which foment hatred of the west; restrictions on economic and technical aid unless such states make demonstrable progress towards democracy and human rights; no military assistance or weapons sales to non-AWADS states; permission to build Islamic institutions in the west to be made contingent upon permission to build non-Islamic institutions in Muslim countries and an end to their incitement of hatred; and a 'credible and devastating force of punishment (not revenge, as the Muslims would have it) is ready to be unleashed every time an identifiable act of terrorism is perpetrated'.

He concludes:

'These measures seem harsh, even inhuman and undemocratic to the squeamish and faint-hearted among us. But they are needed by democracies to defend themselves in this hour of emergency. Other optimistic minds believe that by explaining and apologizing, the West's righteousness shall prevail and the bad spirits that have been threatening all of us shall be soothed and mitigated. Still others are expecting other interpretations of Islam to emerge, which will be more enlightened, accommodating and modern. Such interpretations do exist, but in the underground, they are based more on apologetics than on moral grounds, and their authors have been attacked, killed, maimed or disgraced. The masses of the Arabs are not exposed to free speech and to liberal media with contradicting opinions, they are subjected to the uniform and repetitive message of hate and illusion that is hammered into their heads, day in day out, in the form of incitement, therefore they do not know any better. No enlightenment can be expected to emerge from a conservative Islam, which does not even possess the humanity of compassion to victims of terrorist massacres, and no liberal Muslim individuals will have the courage, let alone the power and stamina to enforce their dissenting marginal views on the terrifyingly deluded and incited masses. Therefore, the West has no much choice but to go all the way all alone in thinking, planning and implementing its measures of self-defense and survival.'

Alas, the west is not prepared to face up to this. Read it all.

Posted by melanie at July 23, 2004