Tony Blair finally tells the truth about Islam

Some people have said that Tony Blair only tells the truth by accident, or when there is some personal advantage to be gained. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he hopes to re-invent himself as a populist political figure and is willing to make statements about Islam that seem to resonate with the outrage in Britain over the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. Who knows? But his statement is well worth considering in detail since it goes so much further than the rather disturbing apologies which have been issued by Cameron, Clegg and Milliband.

Blair’s statement was published in the Mail on Sunday. That seems rather significant since if he had wanted to address a left-leaning audience he could easily have written for the Guardian, the Independent or the New Statesman. It would seem that he wanted to deliberately speak to a more right-of-centre readership. His views are certainly not conservative, nor do they represent the understanding of Islam which a reading of the Koran provides. But the fact that Blair has spoken out, and the headlines carry the message he may not entirely have intended, should be taken as a helpful step, even if unwittingly so, towards dealing with the challenges Islam poses.

Blair expresses his horror at the murder of Rigby. But he points out that in the choice between blaming a crazy minority or a dangerous ideology he comes down firmly on the side of such atrocities being incited by dangerous and profound ideology. More than simply suggesting that the murderers were isolated extremists driven by ideology, he insists..

We are deluding ourselves if we believe that we can protect this country simply by what we do here. The ideology is out there. It isn’t diminishing.

And this is what many of us have been saying. And what many other public figures have been castigated for saying.

Blair goes on to describe the situation throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the Sub-Continent. We follow the news and know that the situation is generally dire and not likely to improve. But Blair, to his credit (how hard it is to write that!), doesn’t blame everyone else for the problems facing majority Muslim countries. In fact he says..

So I understand the desire to look at this world and explain it by reference to local grievances, economic alienation and of course “crazy people”. But are we really going to examine it and find no common thread, nothing that joins these dots, no sense of an ideology driving or at least exacerbating it all?

Surely we should be glad that the situation here in the UK has become one so obviously heading towards crisis that a politician of Blair’s experience can speak out on this issue without fearing that the negative response will be worse than the positive. He must imagine that there is some benefit to him in telling it as it is for the first time. And so perhaps things are not as hopeless as we had thought. Blair is a political canary and indicates by his words and deeds which way he believes the wind is blowing.

Of course there is a common thread between the violence and social unrest in almost all Muslim countries. It is indeed the common ideology which prevents these countries developing towards liberal democracies even in their own terms. But Blair is a socialist and a politician always on the look out for advantage. He continues..

There is not a problem with Islam. 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.

Well we might have thought that he had just described the problem with Islam? Hasn’t he said that it is a dangerous ideology? Apparently not. There are grave doubts about the peaceful nature of Islam, I guess he has read nothing by Bishop Nazir-Ali or Patrick Sookhdeo, both serious commentators on Islam with personal experience of its true nature. Is it peaceful or is it dangerous? Blair explains what he means..

There is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology which is a strain within Islam. 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. 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. At the extreme end of the spectrum are terrorists, but the world view goes deeper and wider than it is comfortable for us to admit. So by and large we don’t admit it.

I think we can agree with this as far as it goes. Blair is saying that the problem within Islam (even though he would say it was not caused by Islam itself) is that there is a large proportion of Muslims who hold views which are not compatible with our Western society. He insists that this incompatibility is not restricted to a few extremists but is deeply embedded in Muslim communities. It it a view which, as he says, ‘goes deeper and wider’. Of course we have all been saying this, but now we might hope that Blair having said it out loud others will be heard.

I am not sure that we will agree with Blair’s prescription. It is that we support organisations such as his Faith Foundation, teaching children respect for others. It is very hard to see how that works in the Swat Valley of Pakistan close to the Afghanistan border. It is hard to imagine that a community which will murder girls for attending school will welcome Tony Blair and his respect roadshow.

Respect for others is certainly required, and a view of religious and political ideas which allows for disagreement without violence. It is not at all clear that Islam, as a religio-political ideology, will be able to transform itself in such a way any time soon. Nevertheless, Blair has identified the problem in a way that cannot easily be shouted down. There is something very wrong, and dangerous, at the heart of Islam. Perhaps education will produce some difference in other places over a lengthy period of time. It is not a hopeful prospect. But our own national security requires that something be done immediately.

Blair concludes..

Now, more than ever, we have to be strong and we have to be strategic. 

I am not sure that we have any confidence that our Government, or any of the political class, are willing to be either strong or act strategically in the face of the threat posed by this dangerous ideology. But if they will not, then we must. And if it requires us to repeat Blair’s words then we must do so, because on this rare occasion he has spoken the truth.

[The murder of Lee Rigby] was indeed horrible; and the ideology which inspired it is profound and dangerous.