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RSSDesmond Tutu refuses to share a platform with Tony Blair
The Archbishop withdraws from event, citing Blair's support for the war in Iraq as "morally indefensible".
By Caroline Crampton Published 28 August 2012 15:21
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has withdrawn from an event later this week in Johannesburg because he feels he cannot share a platform with Tony Blair.
The retired archbishop, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his campaigning against apartheid, said that he had withdrawn from the event because he found the former prime minister's support for the invasion of Iraq to be "morally indefensible".
A statement from his office explained:
Ultimately, the Archbishop is of the view that Mr Blair's decision to support the United States' military invasion of Iraq, on the basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible. The Discovery Invest Leadership Summit has leadership as its theme. Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context, it would be inappropriate and untenable for the Archbishop to share a platform with Mr Blair.
A spokesman for Archbishop Tutu told me that this should not be viewed as a snap decision, saying that Tutu is "a very prayerful man" who will have "spent hours on his knees considering this decision". "He thinks and prays and then acts," he said. "That's how he's always done things, including during the struggles."
Blair and Tutu, alongside chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, were due to appear at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg later this week. The Muslim political party Al Jama-ah has already announced that it will attempt to arrest Blair when he arrives in Johannesburg for "crimes against humanity".
A spokesman for Tony Blair said: "Obviously Tony Blair is sorry that the Archbishop has decided to pull out now from an event that has been fixed for months and where he and the Archbishop were never actually sharing a platform. As far as Iraq is concerned they have always disagreed about removing Saddam by force - such disagreement is part of a healthy democracy."
Caroline Crampton is web editor of the New Statesman. Find her on Twitter as @c_crampton
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60 comments
Hi. The content is quite useful
Hello I think that your blog is quite nice!
Desmond Tutu has repeatedly refused to condemn anti-Semitism in Islamofascist Iran. He refuses to condemn the open Jew-hatred voiced by islamist members of the South African Government.
The reason Tutu refuses to condemn anti-Semitism is because Tutu is a a racist anti-Jewish bigot.
It would be most unfortunate if one of our greatest PM's Tony Blair was forced to partake in an event with the racist bigot Desmond Tutu.
really Terence? Tutu is a raving anti-Semite who repeatedly makes such an odious position clear to the rest of the world?
go on then, link to a mere 3 such occasions. should be a piece of cake, no?
put up or shut the f up.
seems you took option 2 Terence. wise choice indeed.
Meanwhile as war rages in Africa and politicians play churchmen and churchmen play politicians, there will be no end of the famines caused by war!
I would prefer not share a stage with either one!
" a truly principled man"
An anti-semite to be sure (and no, not merely a 'critic' of Israel) but apart from that, probably an OK guy, relatively speaking..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
JUSTIENNE ROYALE FAMILIA
DO NOT STAMMER ON THE KEYBOARD!
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
Good for Tutu.
Re the rascist wierdo above, and to a lesser extent those on independent left shouting betrayal. Yes, South Africa is a terrible place in lots of ways but gloom and doom is not really accurate. Aids infection is falling, the government is providing free ARV's and other basic health care to the poor, almost all rural areas have been connected to the national power grid - my wife's Aunts in rural area got electricity hook up two years ago and they were one of the last areas to remain off the grid. A series of allowances to the very poor have made some difference. This is not to let the klepto's off the hook or even to defend the ANC, it is in the main a hugely poor country which is (re marikana) bleeding wealth to the north and the political class is bribed and lousy...
@Kosimba. Viva!! Also, don't forget the 3000 plus white farmers and their black workers who are being murdered behind the smokescreen of 'robberies' in an ill-concealed illegal land grab and human rights violation of ethnic cleansing. What is most perplexing : the deafening silence of Nelson Mandela! Our greatest human rights champion of all time. I can only speculate that he's not with us in mind anymore, OR that this horrific blight is kept from him.
@Kosimba. Viva!! Also, don't forget the 3000 plus white farmers and their black workers who are being murdered behind the smokescreen of 'robberies' in an ill-concealed illegal land grab and human rights violation of ethnic cleansing. What is most perplexing : the deafening silence of Nelson Mandela! Our greatest human rights champion of all time. I can only speculate that he's not with us in mind anymore, OR that this horrific blight is kept from him.
Archbishop Tutu says morality and leadership are "indivisible".
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is wise not to attend.
2003 Iraq War crimes finding:
On 22 November 2011, a mock war-crimes tribunal put together by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission reached a unanimous verdict that Tony Blair- and George W. Bush are guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the 2003 Iraq War. The trial, which lasted 4 days, consisting of 5 judges of judicial and academic backgrounds, a court-appointed defence team in lieu of the defendants or representatives, and a prosecution team including international law professor Francis Boyle, does not have powers to apprehend the pair, but issued an order for the findings to be reported to the International Criminal Court.
It's good to see an adult who says, out loud, that "the king is wearing no clothes".
It's good to see an adult who says, out loud, that "the king is wearing no clothes".
It's good to see an adult who says, out loud, that "the king is wearing no clothes".
When Tony (Blair" heard that Dr Kelly had died, he shrank back into the seat.
Mrs Postbox on the flight she shared with her sometimes husband.
Tutu has no qualms about sharing a platform with "KillThe Boer" Malema, the rapist President Zuma or any of the other menagerie who have reduced a once prosperous South Africa to the hell of murder, gang rape, AIDS infection, tribalism, starvation, cronyism, corruption and incompetence that it is today. In other words, like every other country in Africa once it ceases to be run by competent white men. Read "Into The Cannibal's Pot" by Ilana Mercer for an excellent summary of the workers paradise that Tutu, Mandela et al have ushered in.
Dont be foolish. Tutu has been one of the biggest critics of jacob zuma. And i do not think he has ever shared a stage with either malema or Zuma. educate yourself, racism clouds your judgement buddy
Tutu is a man of Principal.
Do not worry his family are not starving off the golden calves they feed of.
Funny how he forgot Africa and the starving and overpopulated areas that will starve the next drought.
Hang on Big Women never paid Taxes or insurance - she wants the disabled seats as it too fat to sit on one seat.
To disabled people forced to sit elsewhere - or thrown off the bus.
They have worked for fifty years!
Well done to the archbishop, a man of principle is a rare thing.
I have a letter off Tony Blair stating that before a decision on Iraq it would go before Parliament.
Two days later when I had the post the war had started.
Mind you have you seen the innocent white workers killed in South Africa on their farms.
Seems Two-Two am having gone bind in white observance.
Never mind you have a black police there that will kill poor mine workers.
Anyone want a dose of his magic mushroom soup?
DI Pearton Yo Jackass;
Prove the Pope is a child molester - then run from your gay commune that wants innocent children in their fold.
Bet you are not doing the same message in Saudi Arabia child!
Are you Garry Glitter?
that's quite enough magic mushroom soup dear.
Mmmm...
An healthy democracy-
Where you drop a precise US supplied missile on 1470 houses in Libya and only kill the three terrorists,whom were legal representatives of their country.
The others survived having had a direct hit on their heads.
Then the leader was shot by insurgent terrorists! Without a trial.
The same is happening in again , but a little closer to Israel - whom as a state never bombed Libya.
Even though the West did !
Now Muslim extremists there are bulldozing ethnic Muslim sites, as does not fit in with their version of Islam.
Go America Yo Yo Yo and then find out where yo president was born!
YANKASS:
NICE TO KNOW YOU HAVE HAD ENOUGH MAGIC MUSHROOM SOUP, NOW GET OUT OF MY DOORWAY, AS YOU ARE SLEEPING AT THE WRONG DOORWAY.
BENEFITS FOR PARASITES AND HOMELESS ARE DOWN THE ROAD.
Thank you Mr Tutu! Blair, Bush and John Howard should be tried for crimes against humanity!
Next step, refuse to share the platform of the Catholic Church with child molesting priests and the Pope, who is partially responsible for the spread of AIDS throughout the world, with his position on condoms, and for the continued poverty of women in third world countries with his position on contraception.
Seems he likes to play down murder of African mine-workers and to forget blacks on blacks is murder too!
Is this democracy so praised by TB the same as the one he stamped on when about one million people demonstrated in the UK before his joint invasion of Iraq?
I really appreciate his courage, baravery and confidence to speake up against this war criminal.
jtsgcmbnn
Now THAT is leadership!
Now THAT is leadership!
Desmond Tutu. Man of Principle. Blair shouldn't be in the same article never mind on the same platform.
Jack the Ripper has always disagreed with Scotland Yard about cutting up young women with knives - such disagreement is part of a healthy democracy.
Exactly my immediate thought, Ronny!
Funny thing, this 'democracy', sometimes..
The invasion was carried out not on the 'basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction,' but a plethora of broken U.N. resolutions regarding WMD, and other violations.
by all means believe that with all your heart.
By all means ignore that with all your heart.
uh, pretty sure he is refusing the same platform - the summit is the platform, just because they were never physically sharing a stage doesn't make Tutu's actions less commendable or accurate.
Desmond Tutu is an even bigger fraud than Tony Blair.