Faith-based politics
Source: Newsweek Magazine (Adapted)
May 25th 2009

Tony Blair, Britain´s longest-serving Labour Prime Minister, left office in 2007 as a relatively young man of 54. At his office in London, Blair spoke to NEWSWEEK´s Stryker McGuire. Excerpts:

Question 1: There´s much evidence that religious beliefs have been a force for evil in the world. How do you persuade people to put faith in faith? Many people do see faith as a source of division and conflict. There is another side that the world of faith isn´t often good enough at putting forward – which is about compassion, solidarity, social justice.

Question 2: How do you think President Barack Obama is doing as a leader and healer on the world scene? He´s created a situation where there is a possibility of a completely different form of engagement with the world of Islam and with the outside world. The single most important thing for him is that his decision to reach out is answered by the rest of the world by a decision to reach back. As I keep saying to people, he doesn´t want cheerleaders; he wants partners. You know, he doesn´t want people to tell him how great he is; he´s perfectly well aware of the transient nature of all that fluff, as it were, around the new president and the first hundred days. He´s trying to change the world in partnership, and he needs partners to do it.