‘No excuse’ for terrorism
Terrorists should not be allowed the “vestige of an excuse” for their actions and people must be prepared to confront their ideology at its roots, Tony Blair said today.
In the first of his monthly press conferences since the London bombings, the prime minister hit back strongly once again at suggestions the July 7th attacks were made more likely by military action in Iraq.
He said those who believed military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israel-Palestinian conflict was justification for Muslim extremism – even if they disagreed with the way in which that extremism manifested itself – were deluding themselves.
“Until we get rid of this complete nonsense in trying to build some equivalents between Iraq, Afghanistan [and terrorism] we’re not going to confront this ideology in the way it needs to be confronted,” he said.
Mr Blair said that while there were issues to be dealt with in Africa and in the Middle East, and that these reasons were used as excuses by terrorists, “people have got to be prepared to go into the Muslim community and say what you’re saying about America is rubbish”.
While he accepted this was difficult, the prime minister insisted: “If you accept [anti-US and anti-Israel ideas] as a matter of course, it’s far less of a step into the extremism of terrorism.
“If you challenge the ideas you challenge it at its roots. You need a whole approach to this – put it altogether and go after it with greater vigour than the world has been prepared to do up until now.”
It was this wake-up call that Mr Blair felt in the wake of the September 11th attacks in New York that the world must understand, he said.
“The idea that what is happening in Iraq today is the fault of the British and American forces is to turn the world on its head. The process is being attacked by those who don’t want [democracy] to happen,” he said.
The prime minister insisted that pressing for democracy in the Middle East was the way to attack this ‘evil ideology’, saying: “I believe our ultimate protection lies in the spread of democracy and human rights – not western, but human.”
This ideological battle had to be carried out at home too, and he urged the mainstream moderate Muslim community both abroad and in Britain to tackle extremist ideology.
“Like anything else there will be a decent mainstream majority there – but we’ve got to mobilise those people, and mobilise as role models,” he said, adding that one way was to improve the involvement of young Muslims in both the police service and in politics.
Asked what the difference was between the IRA and the current breed of terrorists, Mr Blair said that the first represented at least the views – if not the actions – of a large number of republicans.
In contrast, “these demands are none that any serious person could ever negotiate on”, he said, while Muslim extremists were intent on killing as many people as possible.
