Fighting Isis must be ‘battle for social justice’, says Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that the fight against Isis is more than self-defence: it is a battle for social justice in the world that must result in a “just peace”.

Writing in Prospect magazine the Most Rev Justin Welby, who backs military action, added that the end of the fighting must include “a review of those aspects of our own culture and lives that rest in power and self advancement and not in love for neighbour” – including systems of trade, international finance and the exercise of power.

Comparing the crisis to the origins of the First World War, he said the struggle was “not simply a religious conflict, but a terrible mix of ethnicity, economics, social unrest, injustice between rich and poor, limited access to resources, historic hatreds, post-colonial conflict and more”.

“There is a need to struggle for the values that our own centuries of insane conflict have taught us to treasure,” he wrote.

“Sometimes this may temporarily include armed force on an international scale. This struggle is for the heart and the spirit, not only for our security and undisturbed wealth...”