Topic

Tony Blair’s speech on terror explores the topic of terrorism by looking at the way it is based on religious fanaticism and how it gains followers by using misleading propaganda. Blair also discusses how terrorism and extremism can be countered through projects within Britain and abroad.

The speech was one of several that Tony Blair gave in response to the London bombings which occurred on 7th of July, 2005, targeting the public transport system and killing 52 peo…

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Terrorism

The speaker begins exploring the topic by describing terrorism as an “evil ideology” (l. 9). To makes his points about terrorism more convincing, the speaker describes terrorists’ ideology in detail, explaining their motives and their demands:

They demand the elimination of Israel; the withdrawal of all Westerners from Muslim countries, irrespective of the wishes of people and government; the establishment of effectively Taleban states and Sharia law in the Arab world en route to one caliphate of all …

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Argumentation

Tony Blair’s speech is generally an example of open argumentation in which arguments are presented directly, as opposed to hidden argumentation, in which speakers do not state their arguments and let the audience infer them.

From the beginning of the speech and throughout, Tony Blair is very explicit about his views on terrorism: “What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilisations…”  (ll. …