Tony Blair’s valuable insights

This is really interesting. British Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to be evolving a new view of ongoing geopolitical tension. The global battle, he now says, is for hearts and minds.

The conflict in the Middle East, as well as others involving Muslim extremists, revolve around “modernization within Islam” and whether the Western system of values can “beat theirs,”

CNN quotes Blair as saying.

Speaking to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, Blair went on to say that the struggle was between moderate, benign values versus the hatred and intolerance of fundamentalism.

“Even the issue of Israel is just part of the same wider struggle for the soul of the region,” Blair said. “If we recognize this struggle for what it truly is, we would be at least along the first steps of the path to winning it. But I fear a vast part of Western opinion is not remotely near this yet.”

This is a significant shift in a major Western leader’s approach to the war on terror. Especially a European leader who has seen terrorism in his own capital and radical Islamism in his own backyard.

He added, “Whatever the outward manifestation at any one time — in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Iraq, and add to that in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in a host of other nations, including now some in Africa — this everywhere is a global fight about global values.

“It’s about modernization within Islam and out of it. It’s about whether our value system can be shown to be sufficiently robust, true, principled and appealing that it beats theirs.”

The strategy behind Islamist extremism, Blair said, is based “on a presumed sense of grievance that can motivate people to divide against each other. Our answer has to be a set of values strong enough to unite people with each other.

“And this is not just about security or military tactics — it is about hearts and minds. It’s about inspiring people, persuading them, showing them what our values at their best stand for. And just to state it in these terms underlines how much we have to do.”

This is inspired insight. I wonder if any of it was inspired by Pope Benedict XVI, who has been preaching this very message for the year and a half of his pontificate. Top Vatican watcher Sandro Magister did some great analysis on this, and I thought of it reading Blair’s remarks.

Sandro sees Benedict’s approach to everything as absolutely fundamental.  

What this pope preaches is a natural decalogue, which is valid for men of all faiths. And in fact, he applies it to all: to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and to the non-religious secularists of the West.

In the Vatican curia, he took away the autonomy of what was formerly the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, merging it into the Pontifical Council for Culture. He maintains that there is nothing to be negotiated among the revealed faiths, but that peaceful coexistence among the religions should proceed, instead, from a dialogue of culture and civilization.

See the similarity in the two views? The Pope continually preaches, and works toward, an understanding of the dignity of the human person and the natural law written on the heart.

For example, whenever he talks to Muslims, Benedict XVI places at the center the question of the person and his freedom. He does not refer to the Bible or the Qur’an, but to the message “conveyed to us unmistakably by the quiet but clear voice of conscience.”

That’s putting some humanity back on the battlefield.