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Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam London: Serpent's Tail, 2nd edn 2012, 352pp. ISBN: 978-1-84668-764-8
Spend any time at an anti-war demonstration in England, and the view that there is a global war on Islam, or against Muslims, will be articulated. The protagonists are seen as the United States, Israel or the UK (or any combination thereof). Mark Curtis turns these conventions upside down, with a withering exposé of how Britain has historically looked to work with and alongside Islam, and in particular its most conservative adherents. The settings for this approach vary - Empire, Iran under Mossadegh, Soviet-dominated Afghanistan, much of the Arab world in post-colonial years - but the aims and practice of British foreign policy have been surprisingly consistent. These have been to develop working relationships with those in power or likely to obtain it, and to promote British and international business interests against domestic populations.
When King Abdullah of Transjordan called for a pan-Islamic movement after World War Two, the Foreign Office was supportive, on the grounds it would be a bulwark against Communism. Within a decade a clear division existed in the region between the...