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Blair Says There is a Problem ‘Within Islam’

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Blair said that the ideology behind extremist Islam “is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies.”
Blair said that the ideology behind extremist Islam “is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted last weekend that a problem “within Islam” that underpin the “profound and dangerous” ideology which underpinned the recent terror attack in England, in which a solider was beheaded on the street by a Muslim extremist, The Telegraph reported.

Blair demanded the British government “be honest” and recognize the problem within Islam in a column in the Daily Mail last Sunday, according to the aforementioned report.

“[T[here is a problem within Islam—from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam,” he said, The Telegraph reported. “And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.”

“Of course there are Christian extremists and Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu ones,” he noted, according to the Washington Post. “But I am afraid this strain is not the province of a few extremists. It has at its heart a view about religion and about the interaction between religion and politics that is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies.”

“The seeds of future fanaticism and terror, possibly even major conflict, are being sown,” he added. “We have to help sow seeds of reconciliation and peace. But clearing the ground for peace is not always peaceful.”

Blair currently serves as the envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the Quartet—the UN, US, EU, and Russia, according to The Telegraph.

He called for a wholesale shift in the way people understand religion and children are taught it.

“The better idea is a modern view of religion and its place in society and politics,” he said, according to The Telegraph. “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.”

“We have to start with how to educate children about faith, here and abroad,” he added. “Now, more than ever, we have to be strong and we have to be strategic.”

Blair’s remarks follow the recent murder of British soldier Lee Rigby by men claiming to be “avenging he death of Muslims,” according to the Washington Post.

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