Tony Blair was awarded with the Washington Institute for Near East Peace - 2010 Scholar/Statesman Award last night. The award, "celebrates outstanding leaders who, through their public service and professional accomplishments, exemplify the idea that sound scholarship and a discerning knowledge of history are essential to wise and effective U.S. Middle East policymaking" (VIDEO HERE). Mr. Blair is the former Prime Minister of Britain responsible for the famous "yellow cake" intelligence reports that contributed greatly to the Iraq War, and today represents the Special Envoy of the Quartet, a "peacemaking" entity dealing with Palestinian "Peace" Processes while advising financiers at JP Morgan as well. The Washington Institute for Near Peace is an arm of the AIPAC lobby and other groups highly supportive of Israel.
The London-based Telegraph published an article about his remarks today entitled, British Extremists have outmaneuvered the West. It reads,
Blair said a failure to challenge the "narrative" that Muslims were oppressed by the west was fuelling extremism around the world. Instead, the majority had accepted the idea that military interventions since the 9/11 attacks were an explicit attack on Muslims. "The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream thinking," he said.
Blair explained how he regarded the narrative: "It is that Islam is basically oppressed by the west; disrespected and treated unfairly; that the military action we took post-9/11 was against countries because they are Muslim; and that in the Middle East we ignore the injustice done to the Palestinians in our desire to support Israel, because the Palestinians are Muslims, and the Israelis Jews. It is a narrative that now has vast numbers of assembled websites, blogs and organizations..." The irony is that the many Muslims who believe passionately in co-existence and tolerance are not empowered but frequently disempowered by our refusal to confront the narrative. We think if we sympathise with the narrative – that essentially this extremism has arisen as a result, partly, of our actions – we meet it half way, we help the modernisers to be more persuasive. We don't. We indulge it and we weaken them.
"Worse, a reaction springs up amongst our people that we are pandering to this narrative and they start to resent Muslims as a whole. This is because implicit in this indulgence is an acceptance of the argument that Islam and, for want of a better term, 'the west' are in conflict."
Blair admitted he still found the judgment difficult. He said: "The policy choices from 9/11 onwards were and are immensely difficult. Eventually they come down to: do we confront this extremist ideology in order to change it, or do we manage it and hope, in time, it changes itself? I still find this judgment hard to make. On balance, however, I don't believe that it can be benignly managed out of existence. Its roots are too deep, its narrative too pervasive."
This is the latest in a new wave of Western efforts to calculate just how to win the so-called battle for hearts and minds. It is a calculated and coordinated policy shift that seems to be coming a bit late, but obviously has plenty of potential adherents on all ends of the political and religious spectrum. In case you haven't noticed, this shift in approach in the War on Terror has largely been ushered in via the creation and utilization of the Ground Zero Mosque debate in ways conducive to pro-western intentions and objectives largely following the recommendation of Washington think tanks like the Rand Corporation, to ally with moderate sufis in preventing the establishment of shariah. The counter-narrative is one that portrays all religious zealots as extremist and the majority moderate populations as lover's of peace. The real issue is, of course, the reality that the narrative of the so-called terrorists is actually true and irrefutable and that no matter how hard they have tried for the past 10 years to kill all the 'fundamentalists', they have officially accepted that in so doing tens are created for every one that dies.
Still, as much as western planners, politicians, and celebrities know this is the case, they relish the return to a pre-9-11 era when the majority did not understand the negative effect Western foreign policy (a.k.a. colonialism) has had on the world. The problem for us as a Muslim community is that, like the Western "experts", our masses are usually too late in being able to identify propaganda for what it is. Many Muslims will fall for the campaign to promote moderates that openly declare support for the continuation of Western domination over Muslim nations. Take for example two videos below.
Still, as much as western planners, politicians, and celebrities know this is the case, they relish the return to a pre-9-11 era when the majority did not understand the negative effect Western foreign policy (a.k.a. colonialism) has had on the world. The problem for us as a Muslim community is that, like the Western "experts", our masses are usually too late in being able to identify propaganda for what it is. Many Muslims will fall for the campaign to promote moderates that openly declare support for the continuation of Western domination over Muslim nations. Take for example two videos below.
The counter-narrative is designed for guaranteed failure for anyone that approaches the problem. Muslim activists have achieved widespread awareness that the West is at War with Islam, that they want to dominate our resources, culture, and societies. We have achieved the necessary obligation of educating most those that will listen. In order to combat this new approach, we must talk about the Islamic alternative, and sell the Islamic System of justice, peace, and prosperity as a solution. Those they call "moderates" are allies with the enemies of Islam, friends to their own pockets, supporters of filthy norms and injustice alongside the propagandic rhetoric of false-peace. We must explain to the whole now, not the reality all should have known to begin with, that the reality that the West has perpetrated terrorism on a scale unprecedented for 400 years, but that there is a better way for people to live and prosper. Instead of telling them about the problem we must now talk about the solution. We must counter their counter-narrative by calling to the System of Islam.
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