How can Blair hope to engage in a battle of ideas when he is so obviously and hopelessly unarmed?
“‘We’ is not the West. ‘We’ are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. ‘We’ are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts.” So says Blair.
But Tony, it is not Christians or Jews or Hindus who are objecting today to religious tolerance, openness to others, democracy, or to liberty and human rights administered by secular courts. It is only Muslims who have mounted a violent movement, found today around the globe, to combat these ideas. It is only Muslims who can and do find in their central religious texts rejections of these ideas.
As long as Tony Blair refuses to acknowledge these facts and their implications, he continues to put Britain and “the West” at unnecessary risk.
From Reuters:
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will call for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on and win a battle over values and ideas.
“This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization,” Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman.
“‘We’ is not the West. ‘We’ are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. ‘We’ are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts,” he will say.