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Britain
Blair attacks 'absurd' Islamists, 'loopy loo' civil liberty absolutists
2007-07-01
Tony Blair has launched a powerful attack on 'absurd' British Islamists who have nurtured a false 'sense of grievance' that they are being oppressed by Britain and the United States.

The former Prime Minister warns that Britain is in danger of losing the battle against terrorists unless mainstream society confronts the threat
In his most outspoken remarks on Islamists, the former Prime Minister warns that Britain is in danger of losing the battle against terrorists unless mainstream society confronts the threat.

Blair's remarks, in which he also attacks some civil liberty campaigners as 'loopy loo', were made in a Channel 4 documentary recorded last Tuesday on the eve of his departure from Downing Street.

'The idea that as a Muslim in this country that you don't have the freedom to express your religion or your views, I mean you've got far more freedom in this country than you do in most Muslim countries,' Blair told Observer columnist Will Hutton, who presents the documentary.
The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly.

We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified.

'The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."'

Blair held out the example of the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan - criticised by Islamists as an example of the heavy-handed imperial West oppressing Muslims - to highlight unfounded claims of grievance. He asked how it is possible to claim that Afghanistan's Muslims are being oppressed when the Taliban 'used to execute teachers for teaching girls in schools'.

Blair added: 'How are [we] oppressing them? You're oppressing them when you support the people who are trying to blow them up.'

Blair, who normally chooses his language carefully when he talks about Islamists, also takes a swipe at critics who accused him of undermining civil liberties. 'When I'm trying to change the law in order to make it easier to deport people who engage in terrorism - the idea that that's an assault on hundreds of years of British civil liberties is completely absurd. Some of what is written on this is loopy-loo in its extremism.'


Posted by:lotp

#12  Before the clock strikes midnight and turns this thread back into a pumpkin, I wish to make one point:

Tony Blair has hit upon the reason the hard Left is so sympathetic to radical Islam. Beside sharing a general hatred of Western culture, the Left (which suckles at the teat of Marx) seemingly only exists to play one group against another based on supposed oppression and a succession of historical grievances.
Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723   2007-07-01 23:56  

#11  Friendly to other cultures?

In their dreams.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-07-01 23:24  

#10  how deeply inimical Islam is to Western culture.

Friendly to other cultures?
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-07-01 22:55  

#9  loo?

As in A toilet, loo, lavatory or WC is a plumbing fixture and disposal system primarily intended for the disposal of the bodily wastes: urine and fecal matter.

Well, it does fit the applicable and identified group.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-07-01 16:33  

#8  It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified.

Refreshing language, if a bit tardy. However, no grievance is too small for skinless people in a sandpaper world.

Blair held out the example of the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan - criticised by Islamists as an example of the heavy-handed imperial West oppressing Muslims - to highlight unfounded claims of grievance. He asked how it is possible to claim that Afghanistan's Muslims are being oppressed when the Taliban 'used to execute teachers for teaching girls in schools'.

I'd attribute this to the usual confusion about Bugs vs. Features. Or as RC succintly noted:

maybe they consider stopping those executions to be oppression.

Sadly, most politicians still cannot bring themselves to comprehend how deeply inimical Islam is to Western culture.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-07-01 16:18  

#7  He asked how it is possible to claim that Afghanistan's Muslims are being oppressed when the Taliban 'used to execute teachers for teaching girls in schools'.

Uh, Tony, maybe they consider stopping those executions to be oppression.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2007-07-01 15:51  

#6  Exactly. All this would have been better expressed on July 8 two years ago. And a cleaning out of the stables at the BBC with it.

You, apologist, you're fired.
You, with the Phakestinians, you're fired.
You, with the "V" sound in Wolfowitz, you're fired.
You, pronouncing Orc names with gusto, you're fired.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-07-01 15:05  

#5  
The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."
Well, uh, who was in charge of how we were fighting it?

Nice words, Tony, but a bit late there.
Posted by: Tarzan Threck7932   2007-07-01 13:48  

#4  I wonder what Mrs. Blair, esq. thinks of his sentiments?
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-07-01 13:46  

#3  'The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."'

I think that one has been bubbling up inside him for quite a while.
Posted by: Super Hose   2007-07-01 13:40  

#2  And what about your 'absurd' immigration 'policy', Mr Blair?
Posted by: Maggie Shusort4353   2007-07-01 13:28  

#1  Blair, who normally chooses his language carefully when he talks about Islamists

Seems that predicament ended with the end of his tenure as PM.
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-07-01 10:51  

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