On air: Has the West failed to challenge the narrative of Islamist extremism?
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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 7 October 2010. Listen to the programme.
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In a week when terror alerts have dominated the headlines Tony Blair has called for a in the fight against terrorism.
The former British Prime Minister has warned that a failure to challenge the "narrative" that Muslims were oppressed by the west was fuelling extremism around the world. Mr Blair made it clear what he thinks this narrative is;
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 organisations.
Mr Blair went on to say this narrative weakens moderate Muslims.
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.
Is Tony Blair right? Is it impossible to defeat extremism "without defeating the narrative that nurtures it"?
