Dear Mr. Prime Minister ...

4 August 2006

The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Dear Mr Blair,

I'm writing to encourage you to continue to do your utmost to see a just
and realistic end to the fighting in Lebanon, and to support you in your
determination to ensure that Hizbullah, an organization with a long history
of terrorist activity against Israeli and Western targets, be not allowed
to emerge from this conflict still intact and capable of regrouping, re-arming,
and, in the end, growing strong enough to accomplish its long-stated goal
of destroying the state of Israel.

Let me say, very briefly, that I take a particular interest in this conflict.
I used to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University, but
my specialization has always been in Iranian affairs, specifically aspects
of Shi'ite Islam. I am also a regional coordinator for the Israel Peace
Forum, and much involved in presenting an accurate and nuanced picture
of the Middle East conflict as a whole.

I believe that your analysis of a wide arc of terror is entirely accurate,
and that failure to act now against the spreading evil of radical Islam
may expose this country, its allies, and many other nations round the globe
to increasingly severe acts of terror that will shift, given time, to more
conflict of the kind now seen in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

I know that international pressure for a ceasefire in Lebanon is intense,
and I realize that time must be running out for you and those few nations
who have seen the real danger Israel now faces. Please stand firm. To leave
Hizbullah largely intact would be to guarantee greater and bloodier fighting
in the years ahead. The danger, as I am sure you are aware, is not only
to Israel, but for the people of Lebanon, who may find themselves at Hizbullah's
mercy. Not only that, but a perceived victory for Hizbullah would permit
both Syria and Iran to extend their baneful influence further through the
region. If Hizbullah is seen to be capable of fighting with reasonable
success against one of the world's best armies, how may that not be interpreted
elsewhere in the Islamic world? It would certainly be a boost for recruitment
to radical jihadist ideology, to active jihadist groups, and to international
organizations like al-Qaeda.

Here in Britain, support for terrorism among large sections of the Muslim
population is an alarming trend that must surely be cut off before it grows
to unmanageable proportions. I believe you are right to call for the glorification
of terrorism to become an offence, but I also believe you have been taking
advice from sections within the Muslim community that are committed to
an anti-Western, anti-British, and anti-Semitic view of the world. If Hizbullah
should proclaim even a partial victory, I would expect to see more young
Muslims here flock to the banner of jihad, whether to fight abroad or here
in the UK.

In the Middle East, force alone will not solve a deeply embedded problem.
But one thing I am certain of and that is so long as its neighbours do
not recognize Israel and her right to exist, there will never be peace.
With a terrorist organization in control of Gaza and dominant in the West
Bank, with a terrorist army on its borders, and with an apocalyptic Iranian
president determined to wipe her from the map, Israel is faced with the
greatest threat ever suffered by any nation since these islands faced the
armies of the Third Reich.

In the 19th century, a sectarian group of Shi'ite Muslims in Iran, believing
the advent of their Messiah, the Twelfth Imam, to be imminent, purchased
and made arms and prepared for the final jihad. They made ready to fight
in order to bring the Imam to earth. Today, there are reliable reports
that President Ahmadinezhad holds an identical belief, that he anticipates
the return of the Imam in a short space of time, and that he may be preparing
to force his hand by initiating the holy war necessary to his advent.

Given that context and the knowledge that that the destruction of Israel
would win its author acclamations from every quarter of the globe, I fear
for Israel. I have seen documents that suggest al-Qaeda already possesses
nuclear materials. I know, as you do, that Iran is bent on the acquisition
of nuclear weapons. Even a small number of such weapons in the hands of
Hizbullah could wreak untold calamity on the people of Israel and open
up chaos in international affairs. Unlike Mr Ahmadinezhad, I do not wish
to sound apocalyptic. But I do believe that the elimination of Israel is
planned, plotted, and even scheduled with great care and seriousness in
more than one country. And I am convinced that, if Israel disappears, the
consequences for all of us will be fearful.

You are a resolute politician, and I think you see this threat more clearly
than most. If there was ever a time to act, I think this is it. If an international
force does enter Lebanon, can you ensure, in tandem with the United States,
that it will have teeth, that it be empowered to implement UN Resolution
1559, that it be capable of disarming Hizbullah with or without the cooperation
of the Lebanese government, that Israel, which has never been the aggressor
in the wars it has fought, be enabled to contribute to the downfall of
this fascist-like group, and that both Israel and Lebanon finally enjoy
secure borders across which they can work together to mend the breaches
that have opened up between them?

Backed by an ideology of martyrdom through suicide or fighting - an ideology
with deep Shi'ite roots, now disseminated from Tehran - radical jihadist
Muslims have come to seem invincible. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or
Lebanon, they are starting to believe they can triumph over the forces
of democracy, reason, and justice. They are starting to think they can
destroy Israel, win back Spain, and impose shari'a law in Europe.

Just as our parents and grandparents fought the dark ideology of Nazism
in the 1930s and 40s, so I believe this generation has the heaviest of
responsibilities face to face with this growing threat to all civilized
values. Not just the West, but the peoples of the Islamic world too may
see their way of life changed for ever should the totalitarian spectre
impose itself and its deadening hatred of life on all we and they hold
dear.

I don't like to speak in terms of historic moments or symbolic conflicts,
but I'm afraid that, as this struggle intensifies, I am bound to do so.
Civilization itself is at stake. The values of democracy, the rule of law,
human rights, and the open society are as much or more at risk today than
in the decades when we confronted, first German fascism and then Russian
communism. It may or it may not be your destiny jointly to lead the free
world in this clash of civilizations. But I ask you to hold firm now and
in the future, not just here in Britain, but in the Middle East, where
a sort of Armageddon is being fought on the television screens of the world.

Excuse my prolixity and my overwrought language. I intended something simpler.
I wanted to say in a few words what I have now written in four pages. By
all means ignore most of this, if, indeed, it ever crosses your desk. But
promise me one thing: that if it is your destiny to stand up for Israel
in the time of its greatest peril, you will not prove fainthearted.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Denis MacEoin

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Denis MacEoin first graduated with an M.A. in English from Trinity College,
Dublin, followed by a second degree in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic Studies
from Edinburgh and a PhD in Persian/Islamic Studies from Cambridge (King�s
College). From 1979-80, he taught at Mohammed V University in Fez, Morocco,
before taking up a post as lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle.
In 1986, he was made Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Islamic and Middle
East Studies at Durham University. He has published extensively on Islamic
topics, contributing to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Oxford Encyclopaedia
of Islam in the Modern World, the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Penguin Handbook
of Religions, journals, festschrifts, and books, and has himself written
a number of books. In September 2005, he was appointed to the post of Royal
Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University.