Not for the first time, Monday's tragic event in Manchester raises the question of why some young people who were born and raised in The United Kingdom want to turn against the country which has afforded them far better futures (and in better circumstances) than they could experience in the countries which their ancestors decided to leave.
Although religious issues and recent military actions by "the west" towards Muslim countries (the Gulf wars, for example) are generally thought to be the motivating force behind their behaviour, my own suspicions are that the problems surfaced much longer ago than that. Furthermore, IMHO, they can be described in just three words, The British Empire.
As a Briton, it is easy to be proud of the influence this tiny little nation has had upon the world. On a personal level, for example, my paternal grandfather was involved in The Boer War, The Boxer Rebellion, and The First World War, my father served in the Second World War, and, although not strictly a conflict (but the casualties are turning out to be no less significant) I was on what has been described as the front line of The Cold War when I attended the British nuclear tests in the fifties. Putting all that aside, however, until missionaries started to enter the equation (more of that later), it is difficult to escape the impression that everything which the British did was done entirely for the benefit of Great Britain and often at the expense of the counties which were being 'civilised'.
So, on the issue of 'civilising', there can be little doubt that some of the features, both structural and administrational, which the British introduced have been hugely important for the development of those countries who became part of the British Empire. Less beneficial, some might argue with the benefit of hindsight, have been the contributions (no doubt well-intended) of the aforementioned missionaries. What's more, I would go so far to suggest that it may well have been the long-term effect of their efforts (i.e. to take away the religions of those they had subjugated and to force upon them a religion not of their own choosing) and those sentiments are at the heart of the agendas of those who support organisations such as ISIS.
Think about it.
Although religious issues and recent military actions by "the west" towards Muslim countries (the Gulf wars, for example) are generally thought to be the motivating force behind their behaviour, my own suspicions are that the problems surfaced much longer ago than that. Furthermore, IMHO, they can be described in just three words, The British Empire.
As a Briton, it is easy to be proud of the influence this tiny little nation has had upon the world. On a personal level, for example, my paternal grandfather was involved in The Boer War, The Boxer Rebellion, and The First World War, my father served in the Second World War, and, although not strictly a conflict (but the casualties are turning out to be no less significant) I was on what has been described as the front line of The Cold War when I attended the British nuclear tests in the fifties. Putting all that aside, however, until missionaries started to enter the equation (more of that later), it is difficult to escape the impression that everything which the British did was done entirely for the benefit of Great Britain and often at the expense of the counties which were being 'civilised'.
So, on the issue of 'civilising', there can be little doubt that some of the features, both structural and administrational, which the British introduced have been hugely important for the development of those countries who became part of the British Empire. Less beneficial, some might argue with the benefit of hindsight, have been the contributions (no doubt well-intended) of the aforementioned missionaries. What's more, I would go so far to suggest that it may well have been the long-term effect of their efforts (i.e. to take away the religions of those they had subjugated and to force upon them a religion not of their own choosing) and those sentiments are at the heart of the agendas of those who support organisations such as ISIS.
Think about it.
