Avtroppende statsminister Tony Blair og den britiske regjeringen har fått hard kritikk etter at 3 terrormistenkte forsvant. I et avisinnlegg anklager Blair britiske domstoler for å begrense myndighetenes arbeid for nasjonens sikkerhet og bekjempelse av ekstremisme ved å insistere på å sette de utstrakte individuelle rettighetene til mistenkte personer foran det kollektive samfunnets behov.

Ekstremisme kan bekjempes, skriver Blair, men bare dersom vi først innser at ekstremismen faktisk ikke er skapt av oss i utgangspunktet. Samtidig tok han et kraftig oppgjør med de mange i vesten som aksepterer og videreformidler ekstremistenes verdensanskuelse:

I was stopped by someone the other week who said it was not surprising there was so much terrorism in the world when we invaded their countries (meaning Afghanistan and Iraq). No wonder Muslims felt angry.

I said to him: tell me exactly what they feel angry about. We remove two utterly brutal and dictatorial regimes; we replace them with a UN-supervised democratic process.

And the only reason it is difficult still is because other Muslims are using terrorism to try to destroy the fledgling democracy and, in doing so, are killing fellow Muslims.

Why aren’t they angry about the people doing the killing? The odd thing about the conversation is I could tell it was the first time he’d heard this argument.

This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win.

The Daily Telegraph: Extremism can be defeated