Emerson: Looking back over the past 15 years, what where were the primary reasons why Great Britain allowed itself to become occupied fundamentalist territory?
Phillips: Ignorance, arrogance, and funk. It didn’t realise it needed to pay attention to the radical Islamist ideology coming out of Wahabbi Saudi Arabia because it didn’t think any British interests would be threatened by it. When it finally realised it had a major problem on its hands, it decided to appease it. Throughout its colonial history, Britain has always done appeasement, and in this present crisis over Islamist terrorism and extremism the British colonial mindset has resurfaced. By which I mean that the establishment has taken the view that these Muslim chappies aren’t very bright, and so the Brits can use their tried and tested tactics of divide and rule — throwing baubles to the Islamists in the form of places on official committees advising the government on combating Muslim extremism (!) and as advisers in the Foreign Office (the equivalent of the State Department). But the Islamists are actually pretty shrewd, and are playing the Brits like fish on the end of a line. And the British ruling class can’t see it because of the funk — the profound loss of cultural nerve which means that they are paralysed by the terror of being thought racist, Islamophobic, or xenophobic if they criticise a minority religion, and are further paralysed by the terror that any actions against Islamist extremism may provoke civil disorder or more terrorism. So the British establishment is locked into a state of pre-emptive cultural surrender.
Mere her
Her har vi så igen en forfatter, Jes Stein Pedersen ikke intervíewer i DR2.
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