Confronting this Evil Ideology

From the WASHINGTON TIMES:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who yesterday called for an international conference on Islamic extremism, is proving far more willing than President Bush to demand that Muslim leaders confront their own failings in the global war on terror.

In the two weeks since coordinated suicide bombings killed at least 56 persons on London's subways and a bus, Mr. Blair has repeatedly said the Islamic community and scholars face a special responsibility to curb the "evil ideology" behind the attacks.

Britain's Muslims must "confront this evil ideology, take it on and defeat it by the force of reason and argument," Mr. Blair told reporters in London on Monday.

...Mr. Blair and his top ministers have reached out to British Muslim leaders since the July 7 bombings and have stressed that the vast majority of the country's 1.6 million Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding.

...Nile Gardiner, an analyst on British politics at the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Blair, far more than Mr. Bush, "is taking a head-on approach and not skirting the central issue, which is Islamic terrorism."


Could Blair's tough talk have prompted today's terrorist activities?