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UN tries to heal religious divide
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to be presented with a plan of action to ease increasing polarisation of Muslim and Western societies. The report is by a group of prominent international figures, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ex-Iranian president Mohammad Khatami. They have been brought together under the United Nations initiative, the Alliance of Civilisations.

The report will be presented at a ceremony in Istanbul. It is the product of 20 minds: prominent international figures from a variety of religions.

They have been meeting over the past year to examine the root causes of the increasing divide between the Muslim world and the West.
We could have told them and it wouldn't even require a trip to Istanbul.
Their mandate was to propose a concrete plan of action to bridge the gap and overcome mutual feelings of fear and suspicion.

The high-level group questions the theory that a clash of civilisations is inevitable; its report is expected to say that the chief causes of tension are not cultural or religious, but political.
And politics, as we all know, has nothing to do with culture or religion. Especially Islam.
Members of the working group say the situation in the Middle East and the conflict in Iraq are key to an increasing sense of frustration in the Muslim world.

Among proposals to help promote respect and understanding are youth education programmes and a focus on cultural ties. But this group is expected to make it quite clear that such schemes will have limited impact unless the political causes of tension are addressed.
I confess: Khatami is good. He's pulling the wool over their eyes (granted, they want to be blinded) and doing the hand-waving trick to confuse us kufirs about the real intent of radical Islam.

Posted by: tipper 2006-11-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=171857