ALL HAIL: "Tony Blair on mission to unite religions"

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

Tony Blair has said he wants to spend the rest of his life bringing the religions of the world together.

On the eve of the launch of his “faith foundation”, the former prime minister also said faith had given him the courage to make unpopular decisions he knew were right during his 10 years in office.

In an interview with Time magazine, Mr Blair said faith could be “a civilising force in globalisation”, bringing different peoples together to solve the world’s problems.

He argued: “Faith is part of our future, and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of making globalisation work.” Mr Blair’s foundation, which will be officially launched in New York today, will attempt to bring religions together to tackle major global issues such as the UN’s eight millennium development goals, which range from eradicating extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability.

“This is how I want to spend the rest of my life,” he said.

One of its first priorities will be to fight the spread of malaria.

Mr Blair said: “If you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria, what a fantastic thing that would be.

"That would show faith in action, it would show the importance of co-operation between faiths, and it would show what faith can do for progress.”

In an accompanying video, Mr Blair said he had spent “decades” thinking about setting up the foundation — including when he was still prime minister.

He added: “The purpose of it is so that we achieve a greater understanding between the different religious faiths, so that we make platforms for action by those faiths and deal with some of the biggest issues in the world — for example the millennium development goals and so on — it should be an interfaith encounter through action.

“But also so that we show that faith is something positive, a force for progress, something to do with our future as well as our past, and I want the foundation therefore to be actively promoting the greater understanding between the faiths but also lead to action by the faiths in society, in the world to the greater public good.

Bono, the U2 singer and anti-poverty campaigner, told the magazine: “I think he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to decrying the concept of a clash of civilisations.”

He disclosed that he had once been given a copy of the Koran by Mr Blair, who was reading a passage of it every night in an attempt to better understand Islam.

Mr Blair, who recently converted to Catholicism, said faith had helped him make tough decisions while in office.

Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s press secretary, once famously remarked that his government didn’t “do God”.

But Mr Blair, 55, said: “You don’t put a hotline up to God and get the answers. The worst thing in politics is when you’re so scared of losing support that you don’t do what you think is the right thing.

“What faith can do is not tell you what is right but give you the strength to do it.”