LONDON, Aug. 5 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined fundamental changes in British policy and law Friday aimed at reining in what he called the "fanatical fringe" of the country's 2 million Muslims following last month's deadly train and bus bombings.
The measures, some of them effective immediately and others requiring approval by Parliament, include deporting people involved with radical Web sites, shutting down places of worship seen as "fomenting extremism," and criminalizing speech deemed to justify or incite terrorism.
"Let no one be in any doubt," Blair said in a nationally televised news conference. "The rules of the game are changing."
His program comes in response to growing public sentiment here that Britain has allowed itself to become a breeding ground for extremist Muslims from around the world, putting not only Britain at risk, but other nations as well.
"We're angry about them abusing our good nature and our toleration," Blair said. "Coming to Britain is not a right. And even when people have come here, staying here carries with it a duty. That duty is to share and support the values that sustain the British way of life."
His plan seemed set to win approval in Parliament, where the three major parties lined themselves up behind Blair after the attacks and rejected claims that Britain had brought the violence on itself by sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But his plan drew strong criticism from people who said he was sacrificing civil liberties in the name of security. In their view, Britain is echoing the United States' response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Blair's endorsement of tighter regulation of speech -- including words that justify violence -- is particularly controversial in a nation that has prided itself on embracing a rainbow of cultures and religions and tolerating the most incendiary speech.
But Blair, recalling the July 7 transit attacks that killed 52 people in addition to the four bombers and injured more than 700, and a second failed bombing attempt on July 21, said that "for obvious reasons, the mood now is different."
His sentiment about extremists has broad support among the British public. "They're in Britain. They don't want to be British and they hate us. I say we should sling them all out," said Peter Brooks, a 57-year-old London resident.
But Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, a British human rights organization, said her group was "deeply concerned" about the measures. "The fundamental values of a democracy cannot be changed because we are provoked by terrorists," she said.
In particular, she expressed concern over the proposal to make it a crime to say something seen as "condoning, glorifying or justifying" terrorism in Britain or other countries. It was so broad, she said, that it could wind up targeting moderates critical of politicians.
