News / Politics

Ex-UK PM urges elimination of ‘radical Islam’

Monday, 27 April 2015 6:32 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 28 April 2015 2:56 AM ]

Former British PM Tony Blair (file photo)

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has demanded Western countries mobilize against what he described as ‘radical Islam.’

Speaking on a Sunday radio show in New York, US, Blair said it is a “poison” that “must be eradicated.”

He said radical fundamentalism is a “poison that has developed within the religion of Islam that does not properly represent Islam, but is nonetheless there, and is encouraged in these extremist activities that then divide the community,” New York Daily News quoted him as saying.

“We need to make sure that young people in many of these countries who have been educated to a close-minded view of the world instead get an education towards tolerance and respect for people of different faiths,” he added.

This is while many of Blair’s critics believe the US-UK invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the main reason for extremism in the region and the ensuing spillover of that beyond the Iraqi borders.

UK forces participated in the US-led invasion of Iraq in violation of international law under the pretext that the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were ever discovered in Iraq.

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