Monday, September 6, 2010

Blair condemned over new book


Former British premier Tony Blair's written assault on Islam and the Muslim community earns the fiery critique of a high-profile British journalist.

In A Journey, Blair's explosive memoir which has recently hit the shelves, he as taken up arms against, what he calls, "political Islam" as well as "political" Muslims. He has characterized Arabs as people who would invariably regard "Jews" as enemies.

In a response to the work, published on Press TV's website on Sunday, prolific journalist, broadcaster and human rights campaigner, Lauren Booth wrote, "Personally I've never understood this fear of 'political Islam.' It seems to me that religious people should always be educated on world events rather than kept in ignorance."

Booth attended the Quds Day rallies in Tehran on Friday. She called the occasion Blair's "worst nightmare," saying the rallies were propelled by the Muslim nation's high awareness of "the history of this region, the wrongs perpetrated by Israel against Palestine and the political machinations of the US and the UK governments to isolate them."

Booth, who is also the former prime minister's sister-in-law, wrote, "Well here again Tony, you've been fed and have consumed in its entirety, a massive lie. The lie that says when Muslims express an opinion in groups, in public, it is always spurred on by hatred of 'us' infidels."

"Today when the streets of London reverberate with cries of 'Allahuakbar! [God is the Greatest]' and 'Down Down Israel.' Christians and Jews will join the thunderous cries of 'Down Down Israel,' marching shoulder to shoulder with the 'political' Muslims you say you fear so much," she said.

"It's kind of like the way you express solidarity with America only without illegal chemical weapons and a million civilian deaths."

"It's worth its weight in WMDs (weapons of mass destruction)," Booth wrote about the book.

Under Blair, Britain joined the United States to invade Iraq, while attempting to convince the international community that the violence-ravaged country was in possession of the arms. Later findings, however, proved that not only Iraq did not have WMDs, but also that the officials who rallied support for the invasion had been informed about the nonexistence of such weapons.

Earlier in the year and almost seven years into the operations, Blair defended his legacy before an official inquiry Friday in the face of criticism that he misled the nation with his war justification.

Booth also addressed Blair's advocacy for Israel and his insistence on the Muslims' alleged animosity towards the Jews. "The 'conflict' between Palestine and Israel is according to you all about religion and has nothing at all to do with the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population, nor the degradation of those who remain beneath the boots of their Israeli occupiers," she wrote.

"You say that Arabs have and always will see 'Jews' as enemies.

"For God's sake Tony do your history...Did your pals in Tel Aviv forget to tell you how many thousands of Jews lived in Historic Palestine in harmony with their Arab neighbors before 1948?," Booth said, referring to the year when Israel claimed existence on the back of the military occupation of vast expanses of Arab territories.

"Do you really not know that even today tens of thousand of Jews reside contentedly in Iran?"

She declined the presence of racial discrimination or religious antagonism among the Tel Aviv-blockaded Gazans, sanctioned Iranians or the people to suffer human losses during US and Israeli offensives.

"Every single Muslim in these suffering families has the same message; 'We don't hate anyone for their race or their religion. We cannot hate Jews they are in our holy book it is against the teachings of the Koran.' But Tony let me ask you this. Why should any people, Muslim or otherwise, be expected to put up with this kind of constant threats from you and your bosses in Tel Aviv and Washington?"

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