Terrorism Can Be Defeated By Education, Tony Blair Tells UN

Terrorism Can Only Be Defeated By Education, Former British Leader Blair Tells UN

New York, Nov 21 2013 - Broad based cross-cultural education is crucial to defeating terrorism, much of it fed by religious extremism, since security measures will not succeed alone, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the main United Nations counter-terrorism body today.

“The challenge of extremism based on a wrong and perverted view of religion is huge, dangerous and urgent. It is time to mobilise,” he said, speaking as head of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which provides practical support to prevent religious prejudice, conflict and extremism.

Mr. Blair stressed that it is not just a question of mere educational attainment. “It is a sobering fact that many highly educated individuals are involved in religious extremist activity. But research shows that there is a link between a lack of cross-cultural education and religious extremism,” he told the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) at UN Headquarters in New York.

“The battleground between us and the religious extremists is to win over the hearts and minds of those with low levels of religious and cultural literacy. It is this type of education which is key. We must educate about diversity and difference, about tolerance and respect, in the same way as we teach humanities, sciences and languages.”

Mr. Blair stressed that values of love for your neighbour, compassion and social justice are common to all the world’s major religions. “It is the most grotesque abuse of faith to commit acts of terror in the name of God,” he said, noting that those who do so fill young minds with hate and often exploit deep-seated political issues for their own ends.

“Security measures are necessary but alone won’t work. And they are expensive and usually have unforeseen effects which can aggravate the situation,” he said.

“The choice for the future is very obvious: either people regard those who are different as a threat to their culture - the closed minded approach; or they regard those who are different as an enrichment – the open minded approach,” he added.

“It is surely obvious that if our young people are educated to understand and know about those who are different, if they can put a human face to them, they are far more likely to accept them and be open to them. Ignorance is our real enemy; knowledge our friend.

“This is why education is the answer. Not just any education, but education specifically for the open mind.”

Mr. Blair noted that his foundation’s Face to Faith schools programme emphasises the imperative that religion taught in the classroom be inclusive and mindful of the beliefs of all students.

“It is my view that there must be real emphasis on reforming education systems to incorporate cultural openness,” he said.

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

ENDS

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