The ends NEVER justify the means

I am saddened and appalled at some of the (supposedly Christian) blogs which have been calling for us to act wrongly. Others have been calling for us to remove our forces from various operational locations because of some strange and skewed link they have chosen to make regarding Qatada's presence in our land. Not only that but they somehow align the situation surrounding illegal/bogus immigrants with that of not being involved elsewhere.

Others have been advocation action that 'puts the fear of God into those who think and act as Qatada does regardless of what the rule of law or our 'soft' attitudes to the naughty people would have us think. Still more call for us to expel att the scroungers and illegals and regain our sovereign rights and take back our rightful place in everything that is rightly ours (I can hear 'Rule Brittania' playing in the backgrounds as the gentle rustle of the Daily Fascist in the backgrounds accompanies the laughter of children colouring in the maps and globes in red once again!).

The reason we are in 'other places' is because we are members of a global community and have been asked, as such, to support Afghanistan's struggle regarding terrorism. Afghanistan was a place that was subject to terrible acts being commissioned against the general populace by the Taliban and the Taliban also provide the training grounds and assisted with acts of terror all around the world. Our forces being there mean that terrorism isn't coming to a (usually very safe place) near you. This is why we are willing to be deployed and put our lives on the line - for the safety of people far away and closer at home - it what we do! To call for pulling out because our sensibilities are offended just makes those lives lost (sixty last year) and those deployed much less valuable.

Not only that but we are working hard to train the Afghan National Army and Police (ANA, ANP) and as we work to reduce the potential of oppression from within we are also training forces that will ensure that once our work is done the tide does not turn and reverse all that we have given our comrades, and time and effort, for.

NATO and ISAF are working to bring democratic reality to the nation (in the truest sense, not like the confused situation that Iraq brought us) and will see us leaving with 'hearts and minds' won and peace if not established, planted and beginning to show shoots!

So a request to those who speak of 'regaining our rightful place' - we already have it and it is bearing fruits through the service, commitment and sacrificie of our forces in many places. We have no need for the awful heritage of the fascists who, having read their scurrilous rags, rech for their pens to write as 'offended of somewhere cosy, safe and comfortable'.

We take the Union Flag and place it in foreign soil, engaging in conflict to see that right is done and moral codes are lived by. Regardless of the provocation we are called (by God) to do what is right. Regardless of situation, we are called (by the Law of Armed Conflict) to act rightly in our military engagements. Regardless of the offence that a man like Abu Qatada 's continued residence in our land causes, it is right and fitting that we should abide by the rule of law and act justly for this is what we have (generally - for I know there have been times when we have failed) always sought to do and be.

To do anything else denies the above paragraph and makes us no better than those who we despise and justifies the wickedness of those who would engage in acts of terror against us. If our hands are clean then their acts are exposed for what they are, and demonstrates our higher moral and spiritual ground.

God calls us to act rightly - secularism calls us to act for ourselves regardless of the methods used.

So please, stop writing tosh and start supporting what is right, regardless of the pain it causes us, and . . .

Why don't we learn from this and demand that our governments, the nations with whom we operate and those who act for us do things the right way - for had they done so Qatada would now be in Jordan!

Now there's a thought for the day, week and the rest of our lives.

Proud to be British - let's keep it that way!

Thought for the day

A great Qatada comment from the telegraph's Matt

Abu Qatada - When Integrity fails

It seems to me that the furore over the the decision to release the wayward Muslim cleric and the ban by the European Court of Human Rights regarding him being deported to Jordan are all part and parcel of the same problems that led to the untimely death of Baha Musa some seven and a half years ago.

Now I know, having read many of the garment-rending and teeth-gnashing blogs that what I'm going to write might not be popular, but the truth rarely is! In both cases the root of the problem lies in the reality that when wrong things are done - bad things happen, and there is no doubt that Qatada's release and the ban on his deportation are not good. So who, or what, is to blame?

The blame lies firmly at the feet of those who cease to operate with Integrity and where this action occurs there is, as Newton observed, a reaction, and sadly this reaction is often greater in terms of outcome that the initial wrong act. The wrong act of gaining evidence by use of torture and coercion brings about the result that, as I understand it, a guilty and wicked man is afforded the protection that others have had denied because of his preaching and actions. This is a stern lesson for us as we realise that by acting wrongly the wrong are themselves protected and the modern mantra of the 'means justifying the end' is totally wrong.

Acting wrongly never brings about something that is right and this is echoed by the findings (and the realities) of the Baha Musa case as well. People who have been acted against, by acting wrongly themselves, are in danger of damaging the innocent if they lose sight of the need to maintain their integrity and throw discipline to the wind.

As I understand it there are ways and means of extraditing Qatada legally and these need to be looked at and acted upon. For those who call upon our government to 'do what is right' even though it is wrong are calling upon our nation to descend into the same pit as those against whom we contend physically, morally and spiritually. We need our nation, through the actions of our government, to show integrity and have the courage to do what is right even though other would have us merely engage in the act of revenge!

And those who call for our government to ignore the rule of law and deport Qatada are themselves in danger of leading us into a place where we become bedfellows with those whom we despise rather than being a people who obey the rule of law and act lawfully.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, my brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Hard (and perhaps unpopular) words - but words I feel we need to heed as a nation and in our own personal walk. If we act within the law all that we do will bear fruit and honour God. If we act against God we sow the seeds of despair and frustration. Perhaps this is what we get with an increasingly secular society (now that's a contentious thought too! - must be my day to tick people off)?

Pax