The perplexing world of Mr Phillips

Mr. Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, recently made some extraordinary comments about religious communities in Britain, alleging that it is often Christians who are out of step with the ‘mainstream’, while Muslims, in contrast, are “doing their damnest” – an odd choice of word – to achieve social integration.

Mr Phlllips produced little evidence to support his theory, beyond claiming that Christians are more likely to complain about discrimination. Maybe this is because there are more Christians, or perhaps more discrimination against them? Certainly, plenty of examples of prejudice against Christians can be found, ranging from petty ridicule and marginalization in the workplace, through to the arrest of street preachers and the banning of Christian symbols. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has gone so far as to say that Christians are being “bullied” out of public life in the UK.

One might have thought that this would be of concern to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Yet far from condemning the problem of anti-Christian bias, Mr. Phillip’s remarks contribute to it, bolstering the widespread view that it is ‘open season’ on Christians.

Of course, what Mr. Philips actually meant is that there are many Christians who don’t agree with his own liberal interpretation of what is right and proper, particularly on the vexed issue of ‘gay rights.’ In an unpleasant undertone, he singles out the ‘black’ churches for particular censure.

In contrast, praising Muslims for their implicit tolerance seems a little bizarre; Islam not being exactly renowned for its support for gender or homosexual equality. Doubtless many Muslims are indeed fully integrated into Western society. But the existence of at least 85 sharia courts in the UK, with reports of their discriminatory policies with regards to women, suggests that not all are committed to our values of equality before the law and the abolition of gender discrimination. Setting up a parallel justice system that only applies to one community is about as far from integration as it is possible to imagine. That is why I have introduced the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill in the House of Lords to protect the rights of British Muslim women. Since women’s rights are presumably an issue close to Mr. Phillip’s heart, I look forward to his support.

The souring of the Arab Spring

Last week, in the House of Lords, I was able to raise concerns over the rising problem of attacks upon Christians in Egypt, and on the need for the promotion of the safety of all citizens of minority faiths in Egypt. Since the revolution ousted the Mubarak regime, we have seen increased sectarian violence by Islamic extremists directed not just against the Coptic Christian minority, who have long suffered marginalization and discrimination, but against the Sufi and Shia Muslim communities too.

The threat faced by minorities throughout the region is one reason why the gushing enthusiasm displayed by Western leaders for the ‘Arab Spring’ already appears naïve. While it is too early to say what forms of government will result from the Arab Spring protests, the portents are not encouraging. What is clear, too, is that the uprisings have resulted in very different outcomes in different countries. In Tunisia, where protests triggered the general Arab Spring phenomenon, the old regime quickly fell. In Syria and in Libya, government security forces fought back ferociously, resulting in terrible violence in the case of Syria, and full-scale civil war (and Western intervention) in Libya. In Yemen, protests have inflamed an already deeply confused and highly unstable situation.

In Bahrain, events followed a different pattern again. There, members of the Shia majority rose up against their Sunni rulers. When the Bahraini security forces proved inadequate to the task of suppressing the dissent, they were joined by Saudi forces who speedily finished the task. Some of the protesters have since received very harsh sentences, up to and including life imprisonment. The West, frightened of increased Iranian influence (Tehran has long harboured ambitions in Bahrain), has been conspicuous by its lack of criticism at the crushing of the Bahraini protests. Evidently, while the West talks big in its support for ‘democracy’, popular uprisings in Bahrain were the ‘wrong sort of democracy’.

Therein lies the problem. There is no evidence that revolutions in the Arab world will result in non-sectarian, pluralist democracies. On the contrary, opinion polling shows that in most Arab countries there exists strong popular support for destroying the state of Israel, enforcing Sharia law, and for making conversion from Islam punishable, even by death. Governments accurately reflecting these strands of public opinion would be disastrous for religious and ethnic minorities, let alone for broader regional security. At least in the short term, I’m afraid that the Arab Spring is in danger of turning into a long, hot, Arab Summer.

Shades of Srebrenica

For many of us, the arrest of Ratko Mladic brought back memories of the Balkans Wars in the 1990s. That was a ghastly episode in European history, one in which neighbour fought neighbour and community fought community, while Western governments for the most part just wrung their hands or shrugged their shoulders.

Few European leaders emerged with any credit from the conflict, but a nadir was reached in Srebrenica, where Dutch UN peacekeepers stood idly by as Mladic’s men committed one of the worst massacres in post-1945 Europe. The Dutch people shamed their government into resignation over that disgrace, and, not for the first time, the cry went up of ‘never again’.

Yet we are now seeing the same thing happening again. In Sudan, in the region of the Nuba Mountains where my charity Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust works, the Islamist regime based in Khartoum is engaged in full scale ethnic cleansing of the black African population. As I write this column, thousands are gathered outside the United Nations compound in the regional capital, without food, water or hope. Under the eyes of UN ‘peacekeepers’, Sudanese soldiers are reported to be going door-to-door killing anyone who looks ‘too black’. Over 100,000 people have been expelled from their homes – and they are arguably the lucky ones.

Above: Civilians come under air attack under the noses of the UN

With a few honourable exceptions, the media, sated with conflict in Libya and Syria, has little time or space for yet another African conflict. And thanks to ill-informed defence cuts, it’s arguable that there’s little enough we can do anyway.

But that is no excuse for the fact that the British government – one of the three guarantors of the peace deal that was supposed to end over 50 years of fighting in Sudan – continues to wine and dine Khartoum’s Foreign Minister.

After the Rwanda genocide, we again said ‘never again’. Then, we possibly had the excuse of “we didn’t know.”

We have no such excuse this time.