Tony Blair may be a divisive figure - many can't seem to even utter the name without the kind of sneer that used to be reserved for Margaret Thatcher - but his long essay The Way Ahead is well worth a read. This section struck me:
"[W]hat is happening in Syria, Iraq, and across the Middle East; and what is happening in Pakistan, Nigeria, Mali, or in parts of Russia or in the Xinjiang province of China or in multiple other parts of the globe, are linked.
They form different parts of one struggle. They all have their individual aspects. They all have unique dimensions. It would be odd if it weren't so. But they have one huge and central element in common: extremism based on an interpretation of Islam which represents a clear ideology that, even if loosely at times, is shared by all these different groups of extremists."
[A COMMENT] .... its a transnational entity, which is supported by many Muslims in the west. You can't bomb their recruits here in Birmingham. You can't fight Islamism without fighting Islam, since Islamism is simply a variety of Islam.
We should be fighting Islam every day, here, by challenging its tenets, ridiculing it, and not regarding it as immune to criticism, but most importantly, by ensuring that no children can avoid exposure to alternative explanations of the world. [Mick Hartley] Read more
