15 Nopember 2006 - 03:58
UN chief slams religious divide theory
Neither the Koran, Torah nor the Bible are the cause of the growing
Muslim-Western rift, outgoing UN chief, Kofi Annan, said yesterday, speaking at
the launch of the Alliance of Civilisations initiative hosted by Catholic Spain
and Muslim Turkey.
Mr Annan, who will complete his term as UN Secretary-General at the end of this
year, added that any broad solution to the problem must include an end to the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
"We should start by reaffirming and demonstrating that the problem is not the
Koran nor the Torah or the Bible," Mr Annan said after receiving a report by an
international group of scholars that proposes ways to overcome the rift.
"The problem is never the faith; it is the faithful and how they behave toward
each other."
Mr Annan, who will relinquish his post to successor Ban Ki-moon on 1 January
2007, said violence was fuelled by fear and misunderstandings, economic
disparities, wars by Western powers in Muslim countries and the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
His claim that religion was not the root of the conflicts that have multiplied
since the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 contradicted those
of some theorists who believe cultural and religious identity emerged as the
main source of tension following the Cold War.
In a challenge to that theory, Mr Annan travelled to Istanbul to attend a
meeting of the UN-backed "Alliance of Civilisations Initiative," which enabled
a group of experts and luminaries to draft a report on how to promote peace.
Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and South African activist and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among 20 members of the group.
The report, made public after being presented to Mr Annan at a ceremony on
Monday, said the Arab-Israeli conflict is a critical symbol of the deepening
rift between the West and Islam, and calls for the resumption of the Middle
East peace process.
Mr Annan agreed that any efforts to reduce Muslim-Western tensions would be in
vain without a solution to that conflict.
"As long as the Palestinians live under occupation, exposed to daily
frustration and humiliation, and as long as Israelis are blown up in buses and
in dance halls, so long will passions everywhere be inflamed," Mr Annan said.
The UN initiative is co-sponsored by the prime ministers of Spain, a
predominantly Catholic country, and Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim.
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