 A conference on Islam and pluralism opened in Vienna with a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for "continuing dialogue among the great religions" to fight extremism. "Clearly there is a need to unlearn our collective prejudices, to promote a continuing dialogue among the great religions, a dialogue based on the premise that diversity in thought, in belief, and in action, is a precious gift, not a threat," Annan said in a statement read in Vienna by his special advisor Lakhdar Brahimi. The statement said: "We must also unite in our efforts to address the extremism that is, alas, on the rise not only in Islam but among adherents of many faiths."| "I mean, have you SEEN what the Methodists did last week? They issued a fatwa on whipped-cream-in-a-can. They say you have to whip it yourself with your Sunbeam mixer...or else." |
Annan, who was not in Vienna, said the response to extremists must be not violence but "the logic of peace, of reconciliation, of inclusion and mutual respect. "We must resolve, even more firmly, to build nations within which people of different communities can coexist, and enjoy equal rights," Annan said. Conference host Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said: "Mistrust and violence are also growing on both the regional and global level, not least in Europe, where an increasing number of Moslem citizens are seeking their rightful place in society. | The 'rightful place' being "in charge with the jewelliest turban and the curliest slippers," of course. Working on an equal basis with the rest of the citizenry towards building a prosperous nation at peace with other prosperous nations is far too demeaning. |
"This conference should foster mutual understanding, dialogue and cooperation between cultures and religions," Plassnik said. Former moderate Iranian President Mohamed Khatami warned the conference against taking "a radical approach of pluralism", saying that the "crusades" of the past taught that war must not happen again. "Religions should listen to each other and focus on what brings them together to save the world from from chemical and nuclear weapons," he said. Others attending the conference include Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and the secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Turkey's Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.| And so on and so forth. Vienna has pretty good food, I've heard. And somehow the Lutherans there have managed not to boom anything in the last three centuries or so... |
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