[TinyRedLeaf]

This seems like the better place to insert this article than in the News thread. Regardless what I think about his time (both the good and the bad) as Prime Minister for the UK, I wish Mr Blair every luck in his new endeavour.

Laying a new foundation for religious faith

New York (May 31, 08): Mr Tony Blair seems like a man energised. He was visibly delighted when his old friend Mr Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, introduced him at the launch of Mr Blair’s new Faith Foundation.

"I have learnt that there's not only life after politics," Mr Clinton said. "There's also good life, if you find something you truly believe in. [Mr Blair’s] found something he believes in."

There are those who will be cynical about Mr Blair's new project. There will be plenty who will wonder whether a man so many associate with war is the best person to try to foster global peace and understanding. It is obvious however - when you speak to Mr Blair about the subject - that this is indeed something he is very driven about.

"It is a massive undertaking, but how important is it? If all the good tunes are with the extremists … if they're the ones out there with the strong message and those of us who believe that religious faith is about peaceful co-existence are silent we've got a real problem on our hands. This isn't an incidental or second order issue, this is fundamental to how the world develops," he said.

In short, Mr Blair believes that faith is the new battleground. He believes it's been hijacked by extremists - from all religions, he's careful to say. Faith, he says, needs to be claimed back by those who believe in co-existence.

In New York there were congratulations for the education projects envisaged, and for the multi-faith work that is proposed on combating malaria and poverty. Can it work though? That is the big question. Those who have closely followed Mr Blair in recent years often say he's good on the theory, the grand ideas, less good on the detail.

This though is a project that he envisages lasting several years, if not decades. Mr Blair hopes to unite the world's religions. It is, he says with a shrug, perhaps what he plans to concentrate much of his energy on for as long as it takes.

He has set himself a difficult task.

- BBC News