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| West being 'out-manoeuvred' by Islamic extremism, Tony Blair warns |
| 2010-10-06 |
| The former prime minister said that there had been a failure to challenge the ''narrative'' that Islam was oppressed by the West which was fuelling extremism around the world. He said too many people accepted the extremists' analysis that the military actions taken by the West following the 9/11 attacks were directed at countries because they were Muslim and that it supported Israel because Israelis were Jews while Palestinians were Muslims. ''We should wake up to the absurdity of our surprise at the prevalence of this extremism,'' Mr Blair said ''Look at the funds it receives. Examine the education systems that succour it. And then measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful co-existence. We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised.'' Speaking on Tuesday night in New York to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr Blair warned that it was impossible to defeat extremism ''without defeating the narrative that nurtures it''. Moderate Muslims who believed in co-existence and tolerance were, he said, being undermined by the unwillingness of the West to take on the extremists' arguments. ''We think if we sympathise with the narrative - that essentially this extremism has arisen as a result, partly, of our actions - we meet it halfway, we help the modernisers to be more persuasive,'' he said. ''We don't. We indulge it and we weaken them. Worse, a reaction springs up amongst our people that we are pandering to this narrative and they start to resent Muslims as a whole.'' |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 I'm with g(r)omgoru: Blair's actions as Prime Minister are very difficult to forgive. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2010-10-06 16:03 |
| #6 The entire point by our elites is to ruin the West, preferably by conquest of some sort. Islamists will do. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-10-06 14:30 |
| #5 As our British correspondents pointed out at the time, Mr. Blair got it right on the War on Terror. However, he got it wrong domestically and with the EU. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-10-06 13:13 |
| #4 This from the man who was out-manoeuvred by Gordon Brown. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2010-10-06 12:13 |
| #3 West being 'out-manoeuvred' by Islamic extremism Still an asshole. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-10-06 09:53 |
| #2 Or, as Faisal Shahzad said yesterday to the judge who sentenced him to life, "We are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing you." |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-10-06 08:13 |
| #1 Blair is like Churchill in that he recognizes the threat and tries to wake the oblivious people, but as with the Nazis, I fear that nothing can shake the people awake until it is either too late or nearly so. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-10-06 07:50 |