“Analogies [of Islamic extremism] especially with the rise of fascism can be misleading but, in pure chronology, I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s, if not the 1930s, I fear.”
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair compared radical Islam to Nazi Germany as he urged that the rest of the world should “not be forced into retreat”.
In his first major public speech since leaving office, Mr Blair told an audience at a prestigious charity dinner in New York that the war on extremism and terror was “far from over”, especially with regard to Iran.
Repeatedly driving home a sentiment that conflicted sharply with a Downing Street successor trying to pull British troops out of Iraq, Mr Blair insisted that it was no time to take a “half-hearted” approach to terrorism.
He said: "There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone.
"I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone.” Tony Blair 'lifts hearts' in New York speech (more) By Tom Leonard in New York
Mark Alexander
