Blair says Muslim leaders must do more

At first glance, I thought that Mr Blair was saying pretty much what I'd been saying at more than one point [you reading this Tony?]. Then I looked more carefully and realised, 'not quite'. Blair said:

Mr Blair said: "The government has its role to play in this, but the government alone cannot go and root out the extremism in these communities." He said there was an impression Muslim leaders sympathised with extremists' grievances, but disagreed with their methods.

Whereas I've been saying that the issue goes deeper than disagreeing with methods, it is whether those methods have 'canonical' status whereas many of these leaders seem to have been expressing what could be a merely tactical disagreement: that violence is 'counterproductive' rather than religiously outlawed.

I actually would say that I would fall foul of Blair's indictment here: I actually think that I have sympathy with the grievances; British/US foreign policy is a bad thing at the moment in relation to the things that concern the Muslim communities. I disagree with their methods. However, I disagree because I think not only that terrorism is counterproductive in the longer term and the bigger picture but also that violence is something God hates. However, that latter theological idea is not something you would naturally surmise from the Qur'an and Sunna the way you would from the Sermon on the Mount or the Noble Eightfold path, or even 'an it harm none ...'.

The real problem, I still contend is more deeply hermeneutical and theological. But in that respect, Blair has it right [though he clearly wasn't understanding it the way that I've just outlined].

Mr Blair insisted government alone could not root out extremism.

In fact, the ulema can't either unless there is an Islamic reformation that sanctions a renewed hermeneutic of the Sunna and Qur'an. The hopeful thing is that, the consensus of the Muslim community is clearly moving towards more humane interpretations and hermeneutics, however, those humane hermeneutics are not 'officially' sanctioned and so are fragile in institutional terms and liable to be trumped by more traditional hermeneutics. It is the latter that the extremists are mining for their approach. This is a crisis for Islam in the sense of it being a time of judgement but also of opportunity.... But what do I know? All I know really is that I want the humaane approaches I hear from Muslim colleagues to be the ones that are more authentically Muslim, but I fear that they are not [yet?!].

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Blair says Muslim leaders must do more:
Filed in: Islam, Islamists, extremism, terorrism, UK, politics, Blair