Last week, Tony Blair attacked several Muslim organisations, accusing them of promoting “extremist ideas”, orchestrating a “propaganda barrage” towards counter-terror strategies and attempting to present the Government as a “hostile force”.
Putting aside the hypocrisy of Mr. Blair accusing others of propaganda, a former Prime Minister making comments which encourage the “combating” of such organisations in a “battle of ideas” is part of a wider pattern of shutting down Muslim voices in public debate.
One of the targets of Mr. Blair’s comments was MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development), an organisation engaged in supporting Muslims to access societal opportunities.
Crucially, this involves challenging Islamophobia – which we define as the “prejudice, aversion, hostility, or hatred towards Muslims which… has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. Islamophobia represents a tool to exclude Muslims from the rights and freedoms of public life and it is within this framework that we should examine Mr. Blair’s comments. [MEND] Read more
