Blair On Radical Islam

Tony Blair, the unflappable, righteous past Prime Minister of Great Britain revealing a hitherto-unsuspected sensibility in recognition of the blight of radical Islam.

Under his watch in the United Kingdom, rabid imams preached violent jihad, radicalizing 'impressionable' Muslim youth without interference from the authorities. While he was prime minister, the country suffered attacks from al-Qaeda-affiliated terror cells. Not only does Britain have its very own home-bred jihadis, it generously offered visas to foreign jihadis to enter and sow terror.

It would be interesting to hear what Tony Blair, private citizen deployed as a special rapporteur to the Middle East, has to say about George Galloway. To know his opinion, for example, of the former mayor of London, Ken Livingston. And of his own country's peculiar laws, under his watch, that were responsible for denying authors of Islam-critical books entry to the country, on pain of usurious litigation, and that sought the arrest of high-placed Israeli generals and MKs for purported 'crimes'.

But here is Tony Blair, smiling his gratification at the opportunity to speak before a rapt audience in New York at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Speaking of the current high level of anxiety reflecting another terror success for al-Qaeda, even without an anticipated attack, in Europe. Canada and the United States were also mentioned as ripe for attack by Osama bin Laden, in retribution for their misguided and incendiary onslaught against Islam.

He described the "narrative" invented and exploited by dedicated Islamists of Islamophobia emanating from the West, particularly from the United States whose sole concern in the Middle East is the existential threat to its subordinate state, Israel. As though Saudi Arabia doesn't have entree to the highest executive levels of the land, despite its role in funding the madrasses that have turned out the scourge of jihadis without end.

"The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream thinking. It is a narrative that now has vast numbers of assembled websites, blogs and organizations."

But what of the fact of the many more Islamists who pose as law-abiding, integrated and moderate Muslims, who have managed to infiltrate civil society, government agencies, even security agencies, and who have gained the confidence of church groups, labour unions, academic circles? Those Muslims who, obeying the Koran are busy practising manipulative, secretive and deceptive games portraying themselves as other than what they really are?

Who have succeeded in challenging free speech, and who have collaborated with leftist groups who view them as misunderstood representatives of a religion of peace and brotherhood. Who evade deep responses to clear questions about their affiliations and values and aspirations in skilled displays of taqiyya, permitted Muslims to put off the scent of suspicion about their true motivations.

"Measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful coexistence." We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategized."

How very true. And isn't the current American administration an exemplar of the genre of understanding co-operation, extending a hand of friendship to those who despise its strategy and defame its purpose?