In a piece about the rise of Daesh (also known as ISIL), published in the Sunday Times, the politician — and, together with former US President George W Bush, the main architect of the Iraq War — claimed that the threat of Islamist extremism should not be measured in thousands, but in millions of people.
"It is easier to look upon this problem as if the violence were cultish in nature, the provenance of tens of thousands of brainwashed crazies," Blair wrote.
"The reality is that the adherents of this [radical] view of Islam are numbered in many millions."
According to Blair, these millions hold a worldview similar to Daesh, which is totally at odds with modernity.
"This ideology is not interested in coexistence. It does not seek dialogue but dominance. It cannot therefore be contained. It has to be defeated."
Blair also called for extended western military action against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, in order to crush it sooner and more vigorously.
ICYMI: Tony Blair in @thesundaytimes on extremism and the strategy and alliance that must be built to defeat it: https://t.co/TplGzag2Tt
— Tony Blair Office (@tonyblairoffice) 29 March 2016
Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, disagrees with the former PM's remarks, pointing out that Daesh is much more Blair's spawn than Islam's.
"I think that Tony Blair and George Bush have a lot more to do with Daesh than Islam has. Blair himself has admitted it," Shadjareh told Sputnik.
Six months ago, in fact, Blair told CNN to feel partly responsible for the advent of Daesh in Iraq, which was left in disarray by the 2003 western intervention and the subsequent removal of the country's ruler Saddam Hussein.
"A war machine like Daesh could not have happened without the help and the approval of the West: of the US, of the UK and of their allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar," Shadjareh added.
Does Tony Blair really think anyone wants to hear from him on how best to engage with radical Islam? Seriously????
— well loved stories (@ms_peaceweaver) 27 March 2016
Shadjareh underlined how Blair "has always been an Islamophobe. He has been biased against Islam for a very long time. When he was appointed as peace envoy to Palestine he managed to do nothing for 8 years, which is a long period for doing nothing.
"To know why he made these anti-Islamic comments, just check who is paying him. He is linked and financed by neocon institutions, for instance, and by the Saudis. He is a man that can be bought," Shadjareh told Sputnik.
Shadjareh added that Blair's comment happen in a general "environment of hate" against Muslims that is currently engulfing the UK, a situation that he thinks is being stoked by "politicians and the media."
