Former UK PM Admits Being Fan of Koran

Former British PM Tony Blair was notoriously reluctant to discuss religion while Prime Minister, with his
chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell famously commenting: ‘We don’t do God.’

But since leaving Downing Street in 2007, Tony Blair has become increasingly
open about the importance of religion.

Mr Blair, who converted to Catholicism months after leaving Number 10, has now
spoken of how he reads the Koran every day.

Reading the Islamic religion’s holy book - considered by Muslims to be the exact
words of God - ensured he remained ‘faith-literate’, the former Labour leader
said.

In an interview with the Observer magazine, published yesterday he said: ‘To be
faith-literate is crucial in a globalised world, I believe.

‘I read the Qur’an [Koran] every day. Partly to understand some of the things
happening in the world, but mainly just because it is immensely instructive.’

Mr Blair believes that a knowledge of the faith informs his current role as
Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European
Union and Russia.

The former PM’s work, which has cost British taxpayers more than £2million, aims
to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr Blair has previously praised the Muslim faith as ‘beautiful’ and said the
Prophet Mohammed had been ‘an enormously civilizing force’.

In 2006 he said the Koran was a ‘reforming book, it is inclusive. It extols
science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of
its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance’.

But Mr Blair has also faced the devastation wreaked by violent jihadists who
interpret the Koran as a call to arms.

Mr Blair said reading the Islamic religion's holy book - considered by Muslims
to be the exact words of God - ensured he remained 'faith-literate'

He was Prime Minister when the July 7 suicide bombers attacked London in 2005,
murdering 52 innocent people.

Not only does reading the Koran support his peace envoy role, it also gives him
something in common with sister-in-law Lauren Booth.

Journalist Miss Booth - Cherie Blair’s half sister - raised eyebrows after
announcing last October that she had converted to Islam after what she described
as a ‘holy experience’ during a visit to a shrine in Iran.

Mr Blair also used the Observer interview to dismiss claims he was on a
Christian ‘crusade’ when taking Britain into the highly divisive war in Iraq.
See Chick's THE CHAPLAIN.