Blair advocates outlawing terrorist
instigation in UK
British Prime Minister Tony
Blair has announced new measures towards the deportation
and exclusion from the United Kingdom of those advocating
hatred and violence.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday the UK's human
rights act would be amended if necessary to counter
Islamic extremists. New legislation, expected to be passed
by the end of this year, will also outlaw "indirect
incitement" of terrorism.
The measures include plans to draw up a list of extremist
Web sites, book shops and organizations that promote
extremists.
Blair told a London news conference; "Let no one be
in any doubt that the rules of the game are
changing."
"This is not, in any way whatever, aimed at the
decent law-abiding Muslim community of Britain,"
Blair said.
"But if you come to this country from abroad, then
don't meddle in extremism," he said. "Because if
you meddle in it, and engage in it, you're going back out
again."
"We are not going to deal with this problem, with the
roots as deep as they are, until we confront these people at
every single level. And not just their methods but their
ideas. Let us expose the obscenity of these people saying it is
concern for Iraq that drives them to terrorism. If it is concern for Iraq then why are they driving a car
bomb into the middle of a group of children and killing them? They will always have a reason and I am not saying any of
these things don't affect their warped reasoning and warped
logic. But I do say we shouldn't compromise with it. Whatever
justification these people use, I do not believe we should
give one inch to them. There is no justification for suicide bombing whether in
Palestine, Iraq, in Egypt, in Turkey, anywhere."
Tony
Blair's speech to the Labor Party's National Policy Forum.
"The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the
nature of the threat we are dealing with. What we witnessed in
London last Thursday week was not an aberrant act. It was not
random. It was not a product of particular local circumstances
in West Yorkshire. Senseless though any such horrible murder is, it was not
without sense for its organizers. It had a purpose. It was
done according to a plan. It was meant. What we are confronting here is an evil ideology.
They demand the elimination of Israel; the withdrawal of
all westerners from Muslim countries, irrespective of the
wishes of people and government; the establishment of
effectively Taliban states and Sharia law in the Arab world en
route to one Caliphate of all Muslim nations. We don't have to wonder what type of country those states
would be. Afghanistan was such a state. Girls put out of
school. Women denied even rudimentary rights. People living in
abject poverty and oppression. All of it justified by
reference to religious faith."
Tony Blair: Labor policy forum speech in full.
|