Tony Blair has called for a US-led effort to confront
the “substantial minority” of Muslims who support
terrorism, during a meeting with top Republicans
that reunited the former British prime minister with
hawks in the party who believe the White House
response to recent attacks has been too limited.
According to a source present at a closed-door
strategy session attended by nearly 300 Republican
senators and congressmen, the former prime
minister argued that force would be needed in what
he called a “generational” struggle, but more
important would be a “global alliance to teach
tolerance” as millions of people in the Muslim world
are systematically being taught to be intolerant.
Blair, who was introduced by Senator John McCain,
also reportedly argued that radical Islam and the
terrorism associated with it had not been contained;
that countries in the west “didn’t cause it but were
caught up in it”; that it was neither isolated nor
insignificant and that while the majority of Muslims
opposed it, “a substantial and not a fringe minority”
supported it.
A spokeswoman for Blair’s private office confirmed
that he spoke about the “Middle East peace process, as well as issues relating to the wider
region” in his capacity as representative of the
Middle East quartet, which represents the United
Nations, US, European Union and Russia. She
declined to give any further information on the
contents of his speech, which was not open to
reporters.
An estimated 300 congressional staff members were
also present at the meeting, which greeted Blair with
standing ovations after he was introduced, at the
conclusion of his remarks and after a brief question-
and-answer session. There was also frequent
applause as he spoke, according to those present.
The meeting came hours before the current UK
prime minister, David Cameron, was due to hold
talks with Barack Obama over dinner at the White
House. The two leaders were expected to discuss the west’s response to recent attacks such as the
shooting of journalists and hostages in Paris last
week. Blair appeared to have struck a more confrontational tone, arguing that a variety of factors contributed to radical Islam, but at root it was a struggle within slam about the nature of the faith and its relationship with other religious communities.
According to the witness, Blair said radical Islam was a perverted ideology that justified the use of force against those of other religions or Muslims who interpreted their faith differently. It was hostile to “us and our values”, he claimed, and though some want to negotiate with it or ignore it, neither of those approaches would work and it had to be confronted.
The former prime minister also talked about the
lessons of the post-9/11 era. He reportedly argued
that the US and UK had learned that if you topple
dictators, you release other forces that have to be
dealt with. However, the Arab Spring demonstrated
that many of those dictatorships would be swept
away in any event.
It was hard to be successful “unless you had allies
within Islam itself”, he reportedly said, adding that
the Middle East would continue to evolve away from
what it is and that unless extremism was fought it
would continue to grow. He was said to be
“extremely concerned” about the emergence of the
Islamic State (Isis) in Syria and Iraq.
Nonetheless, the former prime minister was said be
hopeful about the prospect of building further
alliances in the Middle East, arguing that many
Islamic leaders in recent years had come to
understand that they too were the targets of radical
Islam. He even thought that over time there could be
an alliance of sorts between Israel and the Arab
states against radical Islam.
But he concluded that America would have to play a
leading role in what he thought would be a
“generational” struggle and urged the Republicans
present not to disengage and to rise to the task and
recognise it was “our problem as well as theirs”.
Blair’s office said he was not paid to speak at the
Republican lunch, which was held in Hershey,
Pennsylvania, but received travel expenses.