The context of David Cameron’s speech is very illuminating: an on-going and worsening recession caused by greedy bankers whose system is based on rapacious usury. This is causing banks, companies and countries to default and bankrupt. In turn the resultant pressure has millions marching on the streets in protest in Athens, Dublin, Paris, Tunis and Cairo. No-one imagines that it will stop there. It has long been clear that for the UK and much of the EU, it is only a matter of time before the population march and demand change.
Many people are going to be angry with the government in the years to come as the recession and cuts in government spending begin to bite. That is understandable. It serves the government right because they have failed to govern the banks and are content to serve them at the expense of the people. However, after that, people ought to save their righteous indignation and fury for bankers who are an immoral breed of people steadily enriching themselves and their ilk at the expense of the poorest people on earth.
As for terrorism it is not as serious a threat statistically as the possibility of drowning in your own bath. But Islamic extremists are exotic, colourful, easily identifiable and a suitable target to deflect anger towards.
The worst aspect of this speech is its betrayal of the promise in the ‘big society’ initiative. This is small-minded, parochial and not worthy of Mr Cameron.
If he would play the part of statesman on the world stage let him consider that the Muslims are close to a quarter of all humanity, the vast majority of whom are perfectly ordinary, decent people going about their lives, all too often in circumstances that are made considerably more difficult by Her Majesty’s Government’s foreign policy. The Muslim minority in the UK or in any other European state is merely a part of that billion or more. Whether or not there is a global caliphate, the Muslims are a single community. Wise people do not dirty their own doorsteps and do not alienate their neighbours. If Mr. Cameron throws his weight around for effect in our little UK pool, he should remember that he is a comparatively small fish in a very large sea.