Tony Blair: Time to Address the 'Problem Within Islam'

Let's see...it only took THIS long to hear this from a major British politician.

Too late, chump.  Way too late to tell the truth.

The story comes from The Clarion Project.

Tony Blair: Time to Address the 'Problem Within Islam'


While there are radical activists in other religions, the Islamic strain is 'not the province of a few extremists,' Blair said.

Speaking in the wake of the horrific beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby on the streets of London, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair brought into the public discourse what few other politicians have dared to speak about.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Blair said that while there are radical activists in other religions, the Islamic strain "is not the province of a few extremists."

He warned that the government cannot protect the UK "simply by what we do here." The Islamist ideology, he said, is "out there" and "isn’t diminishing."

"There is not a problem with Islam," wrote Blair. "For those of us who have studied it, there is no doubt about its true and peaceful nature. There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder. 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."

Blair further said that the ideology that inspired the act of terror that shocked Britain last month is "profound and dangerous."

"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," he said.

The former prime minister is the envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the Quartet (the UN, the USA, the EU and Russia) charged with advancing reconciliation in the region.

Conflict in the Middle East is helping radical groups get a foothold, Blair said, and that the "seeds of future fanaticism and terror are being sown." He added that despite long and hard conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, we should not be wary of intervention.

"We resisted revolutionary communism by being resolute on security; but we defeated it by a better idea: freedom. We can do the same with this. 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." Blair said.