Blair moots tough steps to combat ‘evil ideology’: Dialogue with Muslim leaders sought
LONDON, July 13: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday proposed a package of tough measures, including tighter entry and deportation procedures, to combat what he branded an ‘evil ideology’ embraced by the suspected Muslim extremists behind the London terror attacks.
In a weekly question-and-answer session in parliament, Mr Blair sought to reach out to Britain’s Muslim community — who have already suffered violent reprisals following the bombings last Thursday and fear a wider backlash — by calling for the immediate launch of a dialogue with Muslim leaders.
Among the new measures, Mr Blair said his government would consider stronger action against people who incite or instigate terrorism, with consultations to begin on the planned counter-terrorism legislation within the coming few weeks.
“We will look urgently at how we strengthen the procedures to exclude people from entering the UK who may incite hatred or act contrary to the public good, and at how we deport such people, if they come here, more easily,” Mr Blair said.
Prior to the bombings on three underground trains and a bus in London that killed at least 52 people and injured 700 — the worst attack on British soil since World War II – counter-terrorism proposals by the British government had been denounced as a threat to civil liberties.
The London attacks have plunged the country back into a painful debate about how best to prevent terrorist attacks without undermining democratic values.
As well as tightening the security net around extremists, Mr Blair said his government would act urgently to promote the voice of moderate Muslims at home and abroad.
Talks will begin immediately with British Muslim leaders about combating the ‘poisonous and perverted misinterpretation of the religion of Islam’ by mobilizing moderate opinion against violent fundamentalism, he said.
Mr Blair added that his government was already talking to Muslim and non-Muslim governments on how to mobilize the ‘moderate and true voice of Islam’.
He warned that Britain’s Muslim community should be protected from reprisals or suspicion following the bombings — insisting that any attempts by the far right to use the attacks to stir up racism would be ‘particularly revolting’.
“This is a small group of extremists. Not one who can be ignored, but neither should it define Muslims in Britain who are overwhelmingly law-abiding, decent members of our society,” he said.
Since the bombings, several mosques have been attacked and a Pakistani man was beaten to death in a suspected anti-Muslim attack in the central English city of Nottingham, raising fears of a breakdown in relations between Britain’s 1.6 million-strong Muslim community and the wider population.
Mr Blair insisted that his government condemned any attack against Muslims ‘unreservedly’, adding: “I would ask for the same measured and calm response from the country that has characterized it” since the London attacks.
Emphasizing the international dimension of the challenge faced by Britain and its allies in preventing future attacks, Mr Blair called for a worldwide effort to ‘pull up this evil ideology by its roots’.
NEW LEGISLATION: Mr Blair’s comments came as Home Secretary Charles Clarke lobbied for a European Union agreement to speed up the implementation of existing and new security measures at an extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers.
For crime-fighting purposes, Britain is pushing notably for new legislation allowing data from telephones and the Internet to be kept for at least a year.
European ministers vowed to unite in the fight against terrorism and committed themselves to implement security laws agreed on a year ago after the Madrid attacks.—Reuters/AFP
