Tony Blair warns on radical Islam threat

LONDON (AP):

The West should set aside its differences with Russia and China to focus on the growing threat from radical Islam, Tony Blair said yesterday, in a speech that included a call to support Egypt's military government against its Muslim Brotherhood opponents.

The former British prime minister said that tackling "a radicalism and politicised view of Islam" should be at the top of the global political agenda.

He said many in the West seemed "curiously resistant" to face up to a force that "is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisations".

Blair, Britain's prime minister between 1997 and 2007, is now Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the United Nations, the European Union, the US and Russia.

In a speech in London, he said that, "Whatever our other differences, we should be prepared to reach out and cooperate with the East, and in particular Russia and China," to combat Islamic extremism.

Blair's political legacy in Britain is tarnished by his decision to lead the country into the divisive invasion of Iraq in 2003.