Blair, now an international Middle East peace envoy, said it was time to admit the breadth of a "strain within Islam" harbouring views incompatible with free societies.
Blair, a Roman Catholic who says he reads the Koran daily, said most Muslims in Britain would be horrified at the murder of Lee Rigby on May 22.
"There is not a problem with Islam," he wrote in The Mail a Sunday newspaper.
"There is a problem within Islam - from the adherents of an ideology which is a strain within Islam. And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.
"I am afraid this strain is not the province of a few extremists. It has at its heart a view about religion and about the interaction between religion and politics that is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies.
"At the extreme end of the spectrum are terrorists, but the world view goes deeper and wider than it is comfortable for us to admit. So by and large we don't admit it."
He said that made Islamic extremists think "we are weak", which in turn makes those within Islam who want to tackle the issue "lose heart".
The former Labour Party leader said revolutionary communism was resisted by being resolute on security, "but we defeated it by a better idea: freedom. We can do the same on this.
"The better idea is a modern view of religion and its place in society and politics.
"Religion must have a voice in the political system but not govern it."
Blair suggested that the "problem within Islam" could start to be tackled by "educating children about faith".
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