Blair 'faith speech' lacks divine intervention

Faith and religion have become contentious issues of late, what with heavyweights such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens weighing in with their opinions on the apparent uselessness of the whole ideology.

None of which stopped ex-PM Tony Blair converting to Catholicism last year (how's that 'forgiving sins' angle working out for you, Tone?). However much Blair wants to ingratiate himself with the Almighty, though, the man upstairs seems unable of stopping his past from catching up with him. Hence why Blair's speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral yesterday was met with a slew of Stop The War Coalition protestors.

The protestors assembled to blow whistles, beat drums, and bang pots and pans together - yeah, guys, nice way to share your no-doubt scintillating thoughts on the serious geopolitical issue affecting the modern world. What next? An egg-and-spoon race to free political prisoners in North Korea?

Blair, meanwhile, was caught in a rare moment of lucidity during his address:

"In the last 10 years we have also been reminded sharply, in acts of terror committed in the name of faith, that we ignore the power of religion at our peril."

"Religious faith is most obviously associated with extremism in the name of Islam through the activities of Al-Qaeda and others.

"Even if by far most religious people are not prone to the use of terror, at least not nowadays, there are extremists in virtually every religion."

The STWC couldn't care less about what he had to say, however, with member Lindsey German fuming: "If Tony Blair wants a public platform, it should be from the dock at the the International Criminal Court at The Hague."

More interesting than all of this was a curious statement by Blair himself: that he has "no claims to moral superiority". Well, well. Maybe he has more in common with the angry mob than he'd care to admit ...

Written by C J Davies on 4 Apr 2008 12:11 AM. Permalink