{"id":1425,"date":"2016-05-07T23:02:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T23:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=1425"},"modified":"2016-05-07T23:02:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T23:02:49","slug":"cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html","title":{"rendered":"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

With British politics ablaze in accusations that Labour Party\u00a0members\u00a0are “anti-Semitic”, this post will take a brief look at this grave and controversial subject.<\/h3>\n

The remarks react\u00a0to comments\u00a0by Ken Livingstone<\/a> (former London Mayor), Naz Shah, as well as a whole plethora\u00a0of people\u00a0who were voicing anti-Israel views related mostly to the conflict in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a view among some supporters of Israel in Labour and moreover in the political leadership of Britain\u00a0that boycotts of Israel and anti-Zionism in the Labour Party should be\u00a0prohibited. In\u00a0their distorted and narrow view, it seems this defeat for anti-Israel activists\u00a0will result in\u00a0fewer\u00a0extremist sermons and fewer suicide attacks. However, suicide attack sermons were\u00a0never\u00a0given at Labour Party meetings or in any known\u00a0political party meetings in Britain. They are the work of radical preachers, who urge their followers not to choose democratic debate but to choose hatred and violence\u00a0instead. This is what a Government, or the Labour Party<\/a>, would be encouraging by cracking down on any peaceful anti-Israel boycotts or\u00a0advocacy in Britain. It is the road to violence and state disintegration and all of it would be due to Israel, not Muslims. Without Israel, there would have been no reason to try to criminalize and oppress the world’s largest religion to protect\u00a0a\u00a0small and insignificant country.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate reality is that extremism will increase tenfold and suicide bombers will be enlisted by ISIS very easily inside Britain, if there is a crackdown against left-wing anti-Israel sentiments. This is because it\u00a0would quickly\u00a0become impossible for any Muslims, one of Britain’s largest (if not the largest) minorities, to participate in the political process, shutting out hundreds of thousands of people from democracy. If the “devil finds work for idle hands<\/a>“, then obliterating\u00a0the political careers, employment prospects and overall political life of Muslims in Britain is the worst move ever.<\/p>\n

To ban boycotts and stifle criticism of Israel in Britain’s democracy, although only hypothetical at this point,\u00a0would\u00a0be against diversity. It would be against tolerance and against moderate views and opinions among Muslims, and will destabilize British society, even creating escalating violence in coming decades. It is also likely that the Muslim population will then grow in even greater\u00a0isolation from politics, while believers in “democracy” shrink, during such a period. Faith in democracy will be lost, and, once censored and prohibited from the democratic Opposition, youths will be more likely to choose the path of violence rather than debate.<\/p>\n

People in counter-terrorism scholarship, in which I studied at one time, are aware of this danger. They view countering terrorism not as a military struggle but an ideological one, in which excluding people from discussion causes\u00a0terrorism to multiply and appeasing and including people at the table causes it to diminish as they become convinced by the state.<\/p>\n

Does\u00a0the Labour Party\u00a0want groups\u00a0like the former banned al-Muhajiroun\u00a0to say\u00a0all the British people are villainous and support\u00a0Israel, despite its war crimes, and actually be right when they say it?<\/p>\n

What needs to be done to reduce extremism is to be sincere and open. Allow the minorities\u00a0to find expression, give\u00a0them a greater platform in Britain and a role in governing the country. The greater their opportunity to practice in the political process, the fewer reasons there will be for anyone to become an extremist out of despair.<\/p>\n

\"hjb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With British politics ablaze in accusations that Labour Party\u00a0members\u00a0are “anti-Semitic”, this post will take a brief look at this grave and controversial subject. The remarks react\u00a0to comments\u00a0by Ken Livingstone (former London Mayor), Naz Shah, as well as a whole plethora\u00a0of people\u00a0who were voicing anti-Israel views related mostly to the conflict in the West Bank and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,71,63,892,67,66,3,70,56,69],"tags":[1468,198,954,1469,688,271,1470,1486],"class_list":["post-1425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-2","category-conflict-resolution","category-futurism-2","category-islam","category-middle-east","category-politics-2","category-religious-studies","category-religious-violence","category-uk","category-violence","tag-anti-semitism","tag-britain","tag-israel","tag-ken-livingstone","tag-labour","tag-labour-party","tag-naz-shah","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nCracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims? - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amidst the anti-Semitism scandal, I ask, how much of Britain's problems with extremism and social fractures are not due to Muslims but due to Israel?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims? - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amidst the anti-Semitism scandal, I ask, how much of Britain's problems with extremism and social fractures are not due to Muslims but due to Israel?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-07T23:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/05\/Moon-in-space-1024x630.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry J. Bentham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims? - L'Ordre","description":"Amidst the anti-Semitism scandal, I ask, how much of Britain's problems with extremism and social fractures are not due to Muslims but due to Israel?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims? - L'Ordre","og_description":"Amidst the anti-Semitism scandal, I ask, how much of Britain's problems with extremism and social fractures are not due to Muslims but due to Israel?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html","og_site_name":"L'Ordre","article_published_time":"2016-05-07T23:02:49+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/05\/Moon-in-space-1024x630.jpg"}],"author":"Harry J. Bentham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html","name":"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims? - L'Ordre","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/05\/Moon-in-space-1024x630.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-07T23:02:49+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-07T23:02:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#\/schema\/person\/576f5919c442d93e18909ed47628846e"},"description":"Amidst the anti-Semitism scandal, I ask, how much of Britain's problems with extremism and social fractures are not due to Muslims but due to Israel?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/05\/Moon-in-space-1024x630.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2016\/05\/Moon-in-space-1024x630.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/05\/cracks-in-british-society-due-to-israel-or-muslims.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cracks in British society due to Israel or Muslims?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/","name":"L'Ordre","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Harry Bentham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#\/schema\/person\/576f5919c442d93e18909ed47628846e","name":"Harry J. Bentham","description":"Harry J. Bentham is a British futurist blogger who has been a contributor at a number of think tanks including the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies since 2013. His work at Press TV and the L'Ordre blog featured at the multi-faith Beliefnet website has gained increasing attention and praise, including in the international media. Commentaries on political and ethical controversies by Bentham have been published at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, H+ Magazine, Dissident Voice and numerous other publications. He edits The clubof.info Blog (http:\/\/www.clubof.info\/search\/label\/Harry_J_Bentham).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Harry-J.-Bentham\/e\/B00D4MSEY0\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/author\/hbentham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1435,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}