Published on: Saturday, August 02, 2008 |
Kuala Lumpur: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says inter-faith dialogue does address the root causes of terrorism for it lessens ignorance and promotes greater understanding among people of different religions.
While acknowledging that the roots of terrorism could be traced back to injustice as well as poverty, he said there were "specific doctrines of hatred that seize hold of young people's imagination."
"The things that are most dangerous is when religious fanaticism becomes their motivating force in their lives and that's what gives rise to this terrorism," he said.
"Terrorism is not just restricted to Islam, but when there is more understanding and education, there will be less ignorance, less hate and less conflict," said Blair, who was casually dressed for the interview.
He was responding to a question whether inter-faith dialogue could address the root causes of terrorism since Western governments have failed to do so despite repeated calls by the Islamic world since the 9/11 terror attacks.
Blair said ignorance was also manifested in the West where sometimes a lot of people there do not understand why Muslims feel resentful over attacks against Islamic states and Muslims.
Against such a scenario, he said the most important thing was to establish that bridgehead from people from one part of the world to another because of the ignorance of people of different faiths.
Malaysia is among proponents of efforts to address the root causes of terror attacks and has consistently made calls not to link Islam with terrorism.
Blair was the British PM when the US-British coalition force attacked Iraq, which was among the causes which prompted terror groups to sprout up and unleash their terror attacks.
The former premier, who retired in June last year and is now the envoy to the Middle East, was in Malaysia to deliver a lecture on the rule of law at the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Shah Law Lecture today organised by Universiti Malaya.
He has also been busy promoting inter-faith dialogue after he launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in May this year.
Among other things, the foundation aims to promote greater understanding between faiths via education, partnerships inter-faith interaction as well as help organisations whose object is to counter extremism and promote reconciliation in matters of religious faith.
Said Blair: "When people get taught what is actually a perversion of the proper faith, of Islam, which is that Christians are your enemies, then that is very damaging.
"There's a lot of ignorance about what those faiths are. Sometimes in the West, I come across teachings about Islam for example that is really shocking, surprising and not helpful at all and likewise there's a misunderstanding about what Christians and Jews believe."
He cited how some people disagreed "with my decisions taken in protecting Muslims in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq. But whether you agree or disagree but its important that at least you understand the motives for that."
Blair said that terrorist attacks were not the proper faith of Islam at all.
"So, an inter-faith foundation that is built up in educating people of what the truth is about, faiths can actually help significantly diminish the root causes of terrorism," he said.
Blair said his foundation had covered a lot of ground in getting together people of different religious faiths in understanding one another better.
As such, he said one of the main purposes of the foundation was to rescue religious faith from extremism and irrelevance.
Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year, said he does not want younger generations, including his own children, perceiving religion as a strange piece of tradition with no relevance for the future.
Asked what he would do for world peace if he had a magic wand, Blair said that he would do two very important things:
"First of all, peace in Israel and Palestine, I think this is the important part in making for a more peaceful world."
Secondly, he said his foundation would try to get people from different religious faiths to cooperate together in tackling the millennium development goals such as eradication of poverty and killer diseases.
