Dear Person of Faith

Basically, I write as fundraiser for the wonderful new Tony Blair Foundation, whose aim is “to promote respect and understanding about the world’s major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world”. I would like to touch base with you on six key points from the recent New Statesman piece by Tony (as he likes to be called by everybody, of all faiths – or indeed of none, for that’s how tuned in he is!).

“My faith has always been an important part of my politics”

Yes indeed, although Tony modestly kept shtum about it when he was PM. As he said, to shout his faith from the rooftops might have been interpreted as claiming moral superiority over those with no faith (and therefore no morals, of course). Also, some might have objected to their PM taking advice from voices only he could hear; but hey, reality is so last year compared with private revelation, isn’t it? What else, other than shared faith, could have brought Tony together with his friend and comrade-in-arms, George “Mission Accomplished” Bush, in their life-saving and humanitarian intervention in Iraq?

Admittedly, there are one or two problems remaining to be ironed out there, but all the more reason for people of different faiths – Christian and Muslim, Sunni and Shia – to join together in meaningful dialogue to seek common ground, just as Catholics and Protestants have done, so heart-warmingly, throughout European history. It is these great benefits of faith that the Tony Blair Foundation seeks to promote.

“We are focusing on five main projects initially, working with partners in the six main faiths”

Yes I know, I know, it’s a pity we had to limit ourselves to six. But we do have boundless respect for other faiths, all of which, in their colourful variety, enrich human lives.

In a very real sense, we have much to learn from Zoroastrianism and Jainism. And from Mormonism, though Cherie says we need to go easy on the polygamy and the sacred underpants!! Then again, we mustn’t forget the ancient and rich Olympian and Norse traditions – although our modern blue-skies thinking out of the box has pushed the envelope on shock-and-awe tactics, and put Zeus’s thunderbolts and Thor’s hammer in the shade!!! We hope, in Phase 2 of our Five-Year Plan, to embrace Scientology and Druidic Mistletoe Worship, which, in a very real sense, have something to teach us all. In Phase 3, our firm commitment to Diversity will lead us to source new networking partnership opportunities with the many hundreds of African tribal religions. Sacrificing goats may present problems with the RSPCA, but we hope to persuade them to adjust their priorities to take proper account of religious sensibilities.

“We are working across religious divides towards a common goal – ending the scandal of deaths from malaria”

Plus, of course, we mustn’t forget the countless deaths from Aids. This is where we can learn from the Pope’s inspiring vision, expounded recently on his visit to Africa. Drawing on his reserves of scientific and medical knowledge – informed and deepened by the Values that only faith can bring – His Holiness explained that the scourge of Aids is made worse, not better, by condoms. His advocacy of abstinence may have dismayed some medical experts (and the same goes for his deeply and sincerely held opposition to stem-cell research). But surely to goodness we must find room for a diverse range of opinions. All opinions, after all, are equally valid, and there are many ways of knowing, spiritual as well as factual. That, at the end of the day, is what the Foundation is all about.

“We have established Face to Faith, an interfaith schools programme to counter intolerance and extremism”

The great thing is to foster diversity, as Tony himself said in 2002, when challenged by a (rather intolerant!!!!) MP about a school in Gateshead teaching children that th

Admissions made by Danny Zamir, a leading member of the Israeli army, have made it clear that Israeli soldiers had been given explicit orders to target civilians and civilian buildings. These instances include the bulldozing of civilian neighbourhoods and civic buildings, accounts of an unarmed old woman being deliberately shot, the deliberate killing of a woman and her two children, the use of illegal white phosphorous shells, which produces a chemical flame which burns right through the flesh to the bone and is nearly impossible to put out, on a hospital, the shelling of UN operated buildings and snipers clearing large areas of any and all movement regardless of whether they were seen to be armed.

Against such a horrendous list of atrocities, how can the supposedly freedom loving west continue to put their post-colonialist interests in Israel ahead of the right of the Palestinians to live and work in their country in peace, without fear of being targeted by a rogue state with an official policy of genocide and terror. The handbook distributed by the state-sponsored military rabbis states:

“We are the Jewish people, we have come to the land by miraculous means, and now we have to fight to remove the Gentiles* who are getting in our way and preventing us from occupying the Holy Land”

This is nothing less than a declaration of a policy of relocation, appartite and genocide and we in west should be outraged. We need to push for international sanctions on Israel at the very least and Israel should be made aware that any state that sponsors terror will find itself ostracised from the international community and face the possibility of complete sanctions and even military action. Instead of the pathetic response of Hilary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, on a visit to Israel where she said the war crimes were "unhelpful." In the words of Rami Khouri of Beirut's Daily Star (not related to the libellous British Daily Star).

"Colonialism is legal or illegal, acceptable or criminal. Laws matter or they don't matter. There is no such thing as 'unhelpful' colonialism, any more than there is merely naughty rape, awkward murder, or unfortunate incest. Why is it that those in the west who celebrate and seek to export their commitment to the rule of law find it so hard to adopt both the rhetoric and policies that acknowledge the criminal illegality and political catastrophe that is the modern and continuing Israeli colonial rampage? What is it that makes giants in the west become eunuchs in the face of Israeli deeds?"

If we want to continue to be the centre of justice and tolerance in the world, the west must act as a whole to stop Israel, we are strong enough to make a difference and if America will not act then Europe must act. If Europe will not act then Britain must act. If Britain will not act then we, as individuals, must act, not just for the Palestinian people, but for the freedom and justice that are the corner stones of western civilisation itself.


*Non-Jew

Although morality has always been viewed as a human trait that sets us apart from the animals, it now appears our closest ancestors share the same scruples.
Scientists have that discovered monkeys and apes can make judgements about fairness, offer sympathy and help and remember obligations.
Researchers say the findings may demonstrate morality developed through evolution, a view that is likely to antagonise the devoutly religious, who see it as God-given.
Professor Frans de Waal, who led the study at Emory University in Georgia, US, said: "I am not arguing that non-human primates are moral beings but there is enough evidence for the following of social rules to agree that some of the stepping stones towards human morality can be found in other animals."
In tests carried out by Prof de Waal, the primates were given a set of tasks to carry out and rewarded with food and affection.
But researchers discovered that the animals strongly objected if they perceived others were being rewarded more than themselves for the same task. Some even sulked or refused to take part any further.
A separate study found chimpanzees spontaneously helped both humans and each other during controlled tests.
Prof De Waal suggests the traits may have developed through natural selection. Some anthropologists believe a sense of morality developed during the last ice age when humans were forced to band together to survive in an increasingly hostile environment.
Other theories suggest communities were forced to develop social codes to stop alpha males hogging all the food supplies.
Christopher Boeham, director of the Jane Goodall Research Center, part of Southern California's anthropology department argues that anyone not following the moral code would have been killed and their 'amoral' genes lost forever.