Tony Blair, a British Labour Party politician and ex\u00a0 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, has warned there is a problem “within Islam” and described the ideology behind the murder of soldier Lee Rigby as “profound and dangerous”.<\/p>\n
He said, “the seeds of future fanaticism and terror” were being sown, so children in Britain and abroad must be educated about the place of religion in society.<\/p>\n
“There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder.<\/p>\n
But there is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam. And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.<\/p>\n
At the extreme end of the spectrum are terrorists” but “by and large we don’t admit it”.<\/p>\n
Blair also said a significant minority of Islamists with an “exclusivist and reactionary world view” were loud and well organised.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old continued: “The seeds of future fanaticism and terror, possibly even major conflict, are being sown.<\/p>\n
We have to help sow seeds of reconciliation and peace. But clearing the ground for peace is not always peaceful.<\/p>\n
We should never forget that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were long and hard because we allowed failed states to come into being.”<\/p>\n
The former Prime Minister also warned that achieving security in troubled nations was not enough to tackle the problem of extremism.<\/p>\n
“We resisted revolutionary communism by being resolute on security; but we defeated it by a better idea: Freedom.<\/p>\n
“We can do the same with this.<\/p>\n
The better idea is a modern view of religion and its place in society and politics. There has to be respect and equality between people of different faiths. Religion must have a voice in the political system but not govern it.<\/p>\n
We have to start with how to educate children about faith, here and abroad,” he said. He added: “Now, more than ever, we have to be strong and we have to be strategic.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tony Blair, a British Labour Party politician and ex\u00a0 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007, has warned there is a problem “within Islam” and described the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n