Our Madeleine of the Sorrows once again:
The irony of course is that when Muslims do speak with one voice - on British foreign policy - Goggins and his government colleagues refuse to listen.OK, so let's try and get to the bottom of this. Must they listen? Obviously, anyone who's asking should listen when they get an answer. But they aren't bound to agree, are they? Does Madeleine Bunting think they should agree, and if so why?
We may speculate that, under 'British foreign policy', she is including at least Afghanistan and Iraq - that is, Britain's role in the wars to liberate these two countries from, respectively, Taliban and Baathist tyranny. Assuming that, as she implies to be the case, British Muslims do speak with one voice on this - against both wars - is she then suggesting that British foreign policy should be determined simply according to the views of British Muslims? Whatever their views might be? She can't possibly mean that. It would be preposterous to suggest that one section of the electorate should have such an influential power over policy. Perhaps, she means only that the government should agree with those views because they're right. Translated, this would mean that the government should be guided by what she, Madeleine Bunting, thinks is right.