Tony Blair’s new report is a poor attempt at censoring Muslim voices and dictating Islamic belief

London – A new report by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is an academically flawed attempt to remould Islamic belief and silence Muslim voices that challenge repressive state policies. Blair, commonly known for being funded by despots, is now attempting to cast himself as the authority on what is acceptable and unacceptable dissent within the framework of his cash cow, the ‘War on Terror’. The report uses the disbanded Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) as a baseline for “extremist” beliefs, and the authors tar anyone who approximates similar talking points as illegitimate, a superficial guilt-by-association without any actual contextual examination or rigorous academic enquiry. The report is another signal that Blair and ilk are again misleading the public – this time in an attempt to legitimise the counter-extremism sector in the UK – particularly the CCE which we recently exposed – and globally. This is underlined by the fact that the report authors advocate the same tired and discredited PREVENT narratives linking dissenting views to a propensity to commit violence.   Asim Qureshi, CAGE Research Director, said: “It’s unsurprising, considering Tony Blair’s penchant for misinformation, that his organisation would use seriously flawed methodology in order to draw false conclusions regarding Muslim groups in the UK – it fits a wider pattern of behaviour to which we have become accustomed.” “The report draws extremely subjective conclusions based on criteria that are not based on any credible and balanced research, but rather draw conclusions that have already been conceived.”   Moazzam Begg, CAGE’s Outreach Director said: “A poll conducted by YouGov last year found that at least a third of the British population want to see Tony Blair “tried as a war criminal” for knowingly misleading Parliament leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Yet, despite Blair’s role in peddling false evidence to justify a war that has led to the deaths of millions of people, he has, unbelievably, modelled himself as a “peace envoy” in the Middle East and has sought to influence the debate around extremism and de-radicalisation. The report must be seen in this context.” [Ends] Image courtesy of Flickr/USAID U.S. Agency for International Development