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ABC supports airstrikes in Iraq

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed British airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq.
• Baghdad Christians still seeking baptism 

Tim Wyatt for the Church Times  |  29 Sep 2014  |

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed British airstrikes on Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq but warns that this "transgenerational struggle" will require more than just bombs.

Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords, Archbishop Justin Welby said the world would not be able to defeat Islamist extremism by force of arms alone:

"ISIL [another name for IS] and its dreadful barbarity are only one example of a global phenomenon. We will not thus be able to deal with a global, holistic danger if the only weapons we are capable of using are military and administrative, and if we focus only on one place.

"We do need to take this action now. But it is also necessary over time that any response to ISIL, and to this global danger, be undertaken on an ideological and religious basis that sets out a more compelling vision, a greater challenge, and a more remarkable hope than that offered by ISIL."

Later, after a six-hour debate, MPs voted by an overwhelming majority – 524 to 43 – in favour of the British Government launching airstrikes in Iraq.

One Labour MP, shadow education spokeswoman Rushnara Ali, resigned from the front bench to abstain on the vote.

Archbishop Welby said Britain must face the fact that, for some young Muslims, jihadism was more attractive than the "consumer society" offered here.

"Religious leaders must up their game, and the Church is playing its part," he said.

"It is the role of the church I serve to point beyond imperfect responses… (to)  the message of Jesus Christ and justice, healing and redemption that he offers.

“But, in the here and now, there is justification for the use of armed force on humanitarian grounds to enable oppressed victims to find safe space.

"The action proposed today is right, but we must not rely on a short-term solution on a narrow front to a global, ideological, religious, holistic, and trans-generational challenge."

'Direct challenge'

At the same time MPs in the House of Commons were debating a Government motion to join American airstrikes on IS in Iraq but not Syria.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, told the House that IS was not a "threat on the far side of the world", but posed a direct challenge to Britain's national interests.

He said the Iraqi government had asked Britain for help, which provided a strong legal basis for airstrikes against IS.

"There is no realistic prospect" of defeating the terrorists who recently beheaded the British aid-worker David Haines, without the use of military action, Mr Cameron argued.

"If we allow ISIL to grow and thrive, there's no doubt in my mind that the level of threat to the country would increase," he said.

Earlier, the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told a UN Security Council meeting that "terrorism represents a fundamental threat to our common humanity".

He said: "International cooperation must also address the root causes upon which international terrorism feeds. 

“Together with the legal tools and resources to prevent citizens from becoming foreign terrorist fighters, governments should engage with civil society to address the problems of communities most at risk of radicalization and recruitment and to achieve their satisfactory social integration."

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