Tony Blair commended the people of London on Saturday for their extraordinary resilience in the face of last week’s atrocities, joining other leaders in emphasising that Britain would continue its way of life and not be divided by terrorists.
In an interview on Radio 4’s Today program, Blair told the nation; “Even as we mourn the lives of those people killed so brutally and unnecessarily, the sense, I think and hope within the country, is to pull together and to make sure people can’t divide us.”
Blair spoke of the pride he felt was shared by all of Britain as a model for an “open liberal, multi-racial, multi-religion, multi-cultural society,” and described the attacks by terrorists as irresponsible.
He described the extremism of the terrorists as a “dreadful perversion of the true faith of Islam,” adding that he welcomed Muslim communities “standing up and saying, ‘We abhor these acts of terrorism and violence; they’re wholly inconsistent with the teachings of Islam’ and also creating a more just and more fair world…”
Blair’s hopes were unsullied as a statement on Thursday by the editor of the Muslim News read; "We unequivocally condemn these terrorist attacks," adding: "We express our deep condolences to the families, relatives and friends of the victims."
The Muslim Council of Britain, who asked that Muslims in mosques over the country offer prayers for the victims of the attacks on Friday, thoroughly condemned the actions of extremists:
“These evil deeds make victims of us all. It is our humanity that must bring us shoulder to shoulder to condemn, to oppose and to overcome those who would spread fear, hatred and death.”
Ken Livingston expressed his pride at a Britain which values religious and ethnic tolerance above all in a statement directed towards the perpetrators of Thursday’s atrocities:
“They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that - and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another.”
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