Blair: Education, security answer to terrorism

Tony Blair, the ex-prime minister of Britain and founder of the Faith Foundation, on Thursday urged the UN member states to establish pilot programmes in inter-cultural understanding amongst young people in order to stem terrorism worldwide. "Let the young people in your countries experience firsthand an opportunity to learn about the world and to form a relationship with someone far away who may not look like them," Blair told the Security Council's Committee concerning counter-terrorism. "The truth is that many young people have no true understanding of those who are different. They are often taught misunderstanding and misconception about others. The extremists are able to organize their thoughts because we are not organised," he said. "The battleground between us and the religious extremists (in all religions) is to win over the hearts and minds of those with low levels of religious and cultural literacy. We must educate about tolerance and respect in the same way as we teach humanities and sciences," he added. "This has to change. We have to educate the next generation of young people to have an open mind, -- to learn to respect the others as equals. -- It is time to mobilize and to organize. -- And as yet, I don't think we are doing either adequately or with the necessary urgency," he noted. He argued that governments will need, in the foreseeable future, to protect themselves by security measures, and if necessary by force. "But this only contains the problem. It does not solve it. To solve it, we have to uproot the thinking of the extremists, not just disturb their actions." "We have to recruit with the same passion as them (extremists), organize with the same determination," and fight with a "better idea: to be open-minded for coexistence as the route to peace," he suggested, stressing the need to reform education systems to incorporate cultural openness. "I would like to see us - the international community, the UN and its Security Council - recognize this," he appealed, adding that his Foundation, which is active in 1000 schools in 20 countries - is "willing to work in any country which invites us."