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Blair faces growing criticism over God and Iraq comments

-05/03/06

Tony Blair has faced mounting criticism after an admission that he prayed about the decision to invade Iraq and suggested that God would ultimately judge him for the actions he took.

Speaking on ITV's Parkinson, Mr Blair admitted that he had struggled with his conscience, telling host Michael Parkinson: "In the end, there is a judgement that, I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people."

He continued: "If you believe in God, it's made by God as well."

His comments have caused outrage among both anti-war campaigners and relatives of victims of the Iraq war.

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Campaigner Rose Gentle lost her son Gordon in Basra in 2004. She said: "How can he say he is a Christian? A Christian would never put people out there to be killed.

"A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments. It's a joke."

Reg Keys, whose son Tom was killed in Majar Al-Kabir in 2003, said: "President Bush made comments like this about how God told him to go to war. God and religion has nothing to do with this war. This is nothing to do with God.

"He is using God as a get-out for total strategic failure and I find it abhorrent."

Speaking on the Sunday Programme on BBC Radio 4 however, Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe said that she didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

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She said that as a home office minister she had prayed for help over all her decisions, including whether to release prisoners.

But Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond told a party meeting in Perth that Mr Blair did not look
divinely inspired but "troubled, confused and with a great deal on his
conscience".

Dr Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat MP and honorary associate of the National Secular Society, said the comments were "bizarre" and warned against politicians making "references to deity" in public life.