| Topic: | The Paris outrage: is it part of a war against civilisation? | |
| Posted by: | Ann Williams | |
| Date/Time: | 11/01/15 16:11:00 |
| The day after the 9/11 devastation in New York, our then PM, Tony Blair made an angry statement in parliament in which he said (and I think these were his exact words) “This isn’t just an attack on the United States, it’s an attack on the entire CIVILISED world”. It was use of that word ‘civilisation’ that made some sort of sense to me of the whole Jihadist terrorist situation. Yet it wasn’t until last Thursday 8th Jan. that I heard that ‘civilisation’ word used again in a public statement by a major politician - a heart-felt and intelligent speech on the steps of (I think) the French parliament by the former French PM Nicholas Sarkozy. He said, in effect, that this was nothing less than a war against civilisation, and that we should start thinking of it as that. However, when I discussed this with my sister – an intelligent and sensible woman - she said that calling it ‘the war against civilisation’ might be seen as provocative and could possibly lead to further - and worse - outrages. What do others think - can we or can we not safely call it 'the war against civilisation? |