Blair gets grilling from Indonesian leaders, students

British Prime Minister Tony Blair got a taste of the depth of Muslim opposition to his policies on Iraq on Thursday when he was subjected to tough questioning by Muslim leaders as well as teenage students in Indonesia.

Tony Blair was warned that the presence of British troops in Iraq was fuelling terrorism when he met moderate Muslim leaders.

The Prime Minister's plans to build bridges as he visited the world's most populous Muslim nation suffered a setback when he was confronted over the role of coalition forces in Iraq.

After talks in Jakarta, Din Syamsuddin, head of the 30 million-strong Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-biggest Muslim group, said the Islamic representatives told Mr Blair the British Government must pull its troops out of Iraq.

They told Blair Iraq's occupation would stimulate radicalism, extremism and new terrorism.

Azyumardi Azra, an Islamic scholar, said he told the Prime Minister "his foreign policies were not making the world any safer".

There was no escaping the shadow of Iraq when Mr Blair visited an Islamic boarding school.

Rezar Rizky, 13, was cheered when he questioned Mr Blair on Iraq.

"Will you ask your best friend George Bush to stop the war in Iraq?" said Rizky.

"I think we will not agree about Iraq and the decision to remove the government there," Blair told him, but he pointed out that Iraqis could now vote for their government.

"Whatever we thought about the original decision to remove (former Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein), today we should work with the UN and with other countries to make sure that Iraqi people get the same rights as we have in the UK and you have here," Blair said.

Later Mr Blair's young questioner told reporters he was unmoved by his reply, saying he believed that United States or Britain should not be in Iraq because nobody wanted their country to be conquered.

Nonetheless, he thought Blair was a friend of Islam. "I think he is a good man," he said.

"That's a very, very difficult issue," Blair said as he wrestled with a question from one girl about whether female Muslim students in Britain could wear headscarves at school.

The student brought up the case of a British girl who recently lost a legal battle to be allowed to wear full Islamic dress at school.

"We leave it up to the individual school. Some schools permit this, some schools do not ... There are different views in my country about this," Blair said.

Then the debate turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bringing peace between Israelis and the Palestinians would be difficult, "but I will try to do my best to ensure that we can reach peace there," Blair said.

Some of the students were not convinced by the prime minister's arguments.

Anissa At Muzir, 17, said she agreed with some of what Blair said but disagreed with his views on Iraq.

"His answer is not so satisfactory. Justice should be applied in a true sense. I admire him but frankly speaking not so much," she said.

Mumtaz Ibnu Yasa, 16, said: "He seems like a friendly and relaxed person ... But he didn't really give a response like we'd wanted on the issues on Iraq, Palestine and Israel."


Another student asked Mr Blair how he would feel if he were an Iraqi civilian who had had relatives killed in the conflict.

Mr Blair replied: "You feel very strongly that what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan was wrong. I understand that.

"But in those countries now people can vote and their Government should decide what's right and what is wrong."

"You have a view of America which is not a view I share. We have got to see how we build a bridge of understanding between the West and the Muslim world.

"That doesn't mean we always agree but we understand why we disagree."

Mr Blair was due to arrive back in Britain early today after a seven-day tour which also included Australia and New Zealand but was overshadowed by speculation about how long he could carry on as Prime Minister.

Yesterday, allies of Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Mr Blair played down reports that the Prime Minister planned to announce his departure timetable at this autumn's Labour Party conference.

They insisted no deal had been struck between Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

But Labour MPs will press Mr Blair after the Commons Easter recess to spell out how he will achieve the "stable and orderly transition" he promised after last year's general election.

Downing Street trumpeted an agreement struck with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian President, for the two countries to co-operate against terrorism and improve understanding between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds.

Britain is moving to normalise defence ties with Indonesia, which had been at a lower level because of Indonesia's authoritarian past.

Mr Blair's visit sealed an improvement in relations between the countries, both of which have been targets of Islamic militant bombings, and marked British recognition of Indonesia's shift to democracy.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS