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‘People Will Learn to Live With Each Other’
DUBAI - Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited a Jebel Ali school on Wednesday morning as part of his drive to improve inter-faith understanding.
- PUBLISHED: Fri 8 Jan 2010, 12:28 AM UPDATED: Thu 18 Jul 2024, 10:35 AM
Blair was guided around Winchester school, situated directly behind the Ibn Battuta Mall, by its principal Raminder Vig – briefly stopping in on a Year 11 class to join a lively discussion on the role of women in Islam.
“A mistake in interpretation can lead to a cultural problem,” he told pupils, adding that “progressive change” was the key to his message.
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The 56-year-old launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2008, with the aim of fostering respect between religions based on increased knowledge and dialogue.
“Religion is a problem when people fear the other person,” said Blair, who currently serves as the Middle East envoy for the European Union, United Nations, USA and Russia.
“But if they learn the truth about people of another faith – rather than mistaken ideas about [their] religion – then they're more likely to coexist peacefully.” Blair is due to give evidence by early February to a British public enquiry, into the Iraq war, that resumed on Tuesday. An internet campaign has been launched demanding, and suggesting, tough questions about why Blair led Britain into the unpopular war.
On Wednesday, only four questions were allowed of UAE media at the morning event, and despite media being invited to another event that evening, journalists were turned away after photographs were taken, and no questions were allowed.
But students and staff at Winchester School were keen to interact with the former Prime Minister.
Year 11 teacher Maha Ahmed said: “We were so excited to give Mr Blair an idea about what we teach. We all want to live in peace.”
Student Kausar Mir, who discussed society's impact on women with Blair, added: “Mr Blair had many good points. He has a strong knowledge of all faiths, and I think the foundation is focused on bringing peace to the world. If we think we can make it happen, we will.”
Discussing the frequent yet complex overlap between religion and politics, Blair insisted it was impossible to detach the two.
“They are intimately linked I'm afraid,” said the ex-Labour leader. “You can't separate the role of religion in politics. That's why the best thing is to try to make sense of it.”
Blair also stressed the need to remain positive in the effort to achieve harmony between faiths – a persistently thorny issue throughout history, fraught with baggage and showing little sign of abating in the near future.
“I'm a born optimist, and if you take on a position of political responsibility it's best to be an optimist,” he told Khaleej Times. “I think it's possible, because the world is changing very quickly and it's opening up a lot of opportunity for people.
“You only have to see a school like this with about 90 different nationalities, or my little boy's school in London [where] you'll hear numerous different languages spoken in the playground.
“That's the way the world is. I think in the end people will understand that the only way of making the world work is to learn to live with each other.”
adam@khaleejtimes.com