At last one of our leaders, Blair, has said something that begins to make sense and ventures beyond the usual rhetoric.
It took the realization that the London bomb attacks came from within, from people who were BORN IN THE U.K.
Blair said yesterday (in the House of Commons) that “Muslims are overwhelmingly law-abiding, decent members of our society.”
He stated that the British Government has a four-point plan, and the stand-out item was this:
To start discussions immediately with Muslim leaders on combating “the perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of Islam” which lay behind the attacks, and to talk to other nations on how to “mobilize the moderate and true voice of Islam.”
However, he did not go far enough, this is mere preaching to the choir.
He should add to this the voices of the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, and invite them to come to the table too.
Nobody has so far seemed interested in trying to listen to Muslim and other hostile voices from the other half of the world, on the basis that our bombs are bigger than their bombs.
We have to hope that a dialogue will be started in recognizing all of them as fellow human beings who also want to live in peace on our planet.
Blair should gladly risk being seen as a “Peace in our time” Neville Chamberlain. The world is now completely different, and can never go back to the old ways. Blame bigger bombs, the internet, and the cries of a fed-up public inhabiting what is now a global village. A Churchill and a Truman are not required in our time.
Truce and a re-think could lead to a good beginning to a good end.