Jack Straw - What a coward.

Straw's history lesson aims to bring moderate Muslims on side
By James Blitz
Published: August 2 2005 03:00 | Last updated: August 2 2005 03:00

Jack Straw has been talking to Muslim leaders at home and abroad about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot. This may a seem a trifle academic given the immediacy of the terror threat gripping London today.

But the foreign secretary likes to remind moderate Arab leaders that the British have endured a long history of religious-based terrorism which, on several occasions, came close to destabilising our own state.

Mr Straw says he talks to Islamic leaders about these issues - the Catholic plot to blow up parliament in 1605, the sometimes bloody struggle to give non-Anglicans civic rights in the 19th century - because it is important for Muslims to realise that religion-based terrorism is not a flaw unique to Islam.

"One of the things we've got to do is give these leaders the confidence to face down terrorism justified by Islam," says the foreign secretary in an interview with the Financial Times.

In his view, moderate Islam needs to realise that it is not alone in facing this struggle. "Yes, suicide bombing is pretty much isolated to people who follow one religion today," he says. But in the foreign secretary's view, Muslim and Arab states must know this is a battle that has been faced by Britain, and many other societies, before.

Reflecting on the outrages in London, Mr Straw believes it is worth getting into a dialogue with the "brighter, intelligent, more thoughtful leaders" across the Muslim world - people who "are trying to develop a new relationship between Islam and the state".

(Not exactly the same. Catholics were repressed in Britain back then, muslims have full rights in Britain today....Still he has more to say...)

Last week, he and Tony Blair spoke with leaders from Turkey and Bahrain about the gravity of the situation facing Islam. There has been, in his view, a clear meeting of minds. "We need to ensure there is a firewall between mainstream Islam of whatever denomination and the fascists who are letting off these bombs."

Britain is hoping to pursue the dialogue with Islamic states vigorously in the second half of this year. Downing Street hopes to announce plans for a conference somewhere in the Middle East at which Muslim leaders can discuss how to face down Islamic-based terrorism.

"What we need to do is try to end the equivocation over terrorism - and most Arab countries are clear about that," he says. But there are, in his view, practical things that can also be done. One of them is how you can move to license Muslim religious teachers and madrassahs, or Islamic schools, in the absence of a clear hierarchy in the Sunni tradition.

Can such initiatives seriously contain the enormity of what the Islamist terrorist threat appears to be? Mr Straw is in no doubt about the scale of the challenge. "The arc of instability is on our doorstep as never before," he says. But he also believes there is "a wind of change" blowing in the Middle East, elements of which he hopes will be evident in the next few weeks.

First there is Iraq. "Things are not good there at the moment," he says, acknowledging the strength of the terrorist insurgency. But he believes a new Iraqi constitution can be agreed by the deadline of the middle of next month. "The more certainty you have on that, the more you can have a programme for the draw-down of troops which is important for the Iraqis," he says.

"Because - unlike in Afghanistan - although we are part of the security solution there, we are also part of the problem."

Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza next month is another potentially positive development. Mr Straw says Silvan Shalom, Israel's hawkish foreign minister, told him in London this week that, after withdrawal, Israel "will get back to the road map [for a two- state solution to the conflict]." Senior US figures have also told Mr Straw that Ariel Sharon has opened up on the issue.

In short, Gaza withdrawal is a "fantastic opportunity for the Palestinians. "It's more likely than not to work - and if it doesn't, the Palestinians know they can kiss goodbye to a separate state."

What of Europe? Both the UK and France judged the visit to London this week by Dominique de Villepin, the new French prime minister, to be a success and there is a clear sense from Mr Straw that Britain can work well with him.

But will the UK secure a deal on the EU budget by the end of the year, the issue that foundered spectacularly a few weeks back? "I'm not certain. It could be done," he says. But it will be hard to gauge the mood until after the German elections.

However, Mr Straw believes Mr Blair has discovered a real surge of momentum on Europe. "He has a very clear vision and he wants to deliver it. He's more energetic than I've seen him for a long time. He knows that after recent events, he has a very significant position of natural authority in Europe."

However, Mr Straw believes he has made his own mark. He was the driving force behind Mr Blair's decision to pledge an EU referendum in the spring of 2004. That paid rich dividends for Labour, neutralising a big vote loser from this year's election campaign.

"Thank God for the decision," he says. "I wasn't exactly in a majority when we took it, but it turned out to be a belter. As they say in the trade."

(All in all, I think I can say that Straw by name and straw by nature.)

.