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LONDON - FORMER British prime minister Tony Blair said in an interview published Tuesday that he saw the promotion of interfaith dialogue as 'the rest of my life's work'.
Speaking to The Times, Mr Blair said he had focused his efforts on religion because, along with his own personal interest in the subject, combating climate change and eradicating poverty, both also interests of his, were 'well-trodden ground'.
Mr Blair, who converted to Catholicism in December, was Britain's premier from 1997 to last June, and has since become a Middle East peace envoy, is heading a team of experts charged with securing a deal to combat climate change, and is hoping to turn his Tony Blair Faith Foundation into a 'global foundation'.
'People will think this is a piece of spin but, I've always been as interested in religion as politics,' Mr Blair told the daily.
'I see this over time as the rest of my life's work.'
He added: 'I think that the areas to do with climate change and Make Poverty History, where there's a well-trodden piece of ground there, and actually I have interest in both of those things. But in respect of faith, there is a burgeoning interest in it now.'
Of his foundation, Mr Blair said the aim was not to throw 'all the faiths in a doctrinal melting pot and coming out with the world religion as it were, that's not what it's about...
'At the moment, you've still got really quite profound struggle (sic) going on about whether religion is going to be taken over by those who do not regard even the thought of an encounter with those of another faith as a good thing.
On the contrary, they regard it as a betrayal of their faith.' -- AFP
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