Tony Blair: Russia, West should work together against Radical Islam

Related Articles

American Aid worker raped by ISIL leader while being held hostage

August 15, 2015

France : Anger after a group of Muslims  attack  a woman for wearing  bikini in a public  park

July 29, 2015

World Press Freedom Index: press freedom declined around the world in 2014

February 14, 2015

On Wednesday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Western leaders should set their differences aside with Russia regarding Ukraine so that they can focus on the growing hazard of Islamic terrorism.

In a speech, the Middle East envoy said that expansion of extremist ideology in the region along with in Afghanistan, North Africa and Pakistan “represents the biggest threat to global security of the 21st century. On this issue, whatever our other differences, we should be prepared to reach out and cooperate with the East, and in particular, Russia and China”.

His comments come in the midst of a tricky standoff between the West and Russia over Ukraine. Blair said that the shared interest between the West and the East over the dangers of religious extremism should be in top of the world’s agenda. He added that many people “were curiously reluctant” to acknowledge the shared thread between Islamist movements across the globe, but said “we have to take sides” against a lethal ideology which is a “perversion” of Islam.

“There is a Titanic struggle going on within the region between those who want the region to embrace the modern world -– politically, socially and economically -– and those who instead want to create a politics of religious difference and exclusivity. This is the battle”, he said, adding that taking sides would mean supporting open rules-based economies, revolutionary or state held, and the principles of religious freedom.

This means that the world needs to back new governments in Tunisia and Egypt and help the security services in Yemen and Libya to reform, he said. He called the situation in Syria “an unmitigated disaster”, and said that the possibility of President Bashar Assad remaining in power and that of the opposition taking over both seemed like “bad options”.

“Repugnant though it may seem, the only way forward is to conclude the best agreement possible even if it means in the interim President Assad stays for a period”, he added.