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RoP makes veiled threat over Austriaâs plans for a city square named for Theodore Herzl
EFL - I got this from an email from my cousin, I donât have the URLVIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Plans to name a Vienna square after Zionist Theodor Herzl drew protest Tuesday from the Arab League, which urged city fathers to reconsider for the sake of continued ``good relationsââ with the Arab world. Representatives of Viennaâs Islamic community also opposed the plan to honor the founder of Zionism, the movement to establish the state of Israel...the 22-nation Arab League sent a letter to Haeupl expressing its ``regretââ at the decision to honor a man whose name `represents a sad memory for Arabs and Muslims.ââ The letter, which was dated April 29, also suggested the plan could lead to terrorism. [ah yes the indirect veiled threat] But municipal officials said Islamic opposition came late and ... [the article says that Austria is trying to finally come to terms with its role in the Holocaust] Carna Amina Baghajati, a spokeswoman for Viennaâs 120,000-strong Islamic community [most of whom are not citizens], also criticized the plan. She suggested a square be named instead for Mohammad Asad, the Austrian-born Jew [actually he was ethnically Polish but born in a part of Poland that was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire] who changed his name from Leopold Weiss, converted to Islam and went on to become an honored 19th century Muslim scholar [he ended his life being very critical of Islamic backwardness and near dispair over the culture of the Arab and Islamic world] Posted by: mhw 2004-05-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=32620 |