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UN Meeting Promotes Alliance of Civilizations
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"We
want to close off the sources of extremism and win the battle of
ideas and principles," Zapatero told the high-level UN group.
(Reuters)
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PALMA
DE MAJORCA, Spain, November 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)
– A UN-sponsored meeting, currently in session in the Mediterranean
resort island of Palma de Majorca, aims at defusing religious
extremism and promoting a cross-cultural Alliance of Civilizations.
"We
must stop up the springs of extremism, win the battle of ideas and
principles, feed peace-seeking minds, strengthen the instinct of
cooperation in our hearts," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero told the opening session on Sunday, November 27,
reported Reuters.
"Former
rivalry" between the Christian and Turkish empires "has been
transformed into a positive association," he said.
"We
want to close off the sources of extremism and win the battle of ideas
and principles," Zapatero told the high-level group launch
meeting.
Zapatero
said a UN-supported high-level group is due to report a plan by the
second half of 2006.
The
group also includes former Iranian president Mohammad Khatamei, South
African Nobel Peace Prize-winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Andre
Azoulay, aide to Morocco's King Mohamed VI, former French foreign
minister Hubert Vedrine and outgoing Inter-American Development Bank
head Enrique Iglesias.
It
is co-chaired by Spanish former UNESCO director general Federico Mayor
and Turkish minister of state and theology Mehmet Aydin.
The
group should focus on mobilizing opinion leaders, artists, the media,
sports figures, scientists and others, Zapatero stressed.
Zapatero
suggested the alliance, promoted as a counterpoint to the Washington's
more forthright anti-terrorist strategy, idea last year in a speech at
the UN.
It
has found a receptive ear in UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, as well
as Turkey and 22 other countries.
Planting
Seeds
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Erdogan
insisted extremism was not confined to any one religion and
terrorists might attack any target regardless of its culture.
(Reuters)
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Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan - co-sponsor of the three-day meeting,
echoed a similar position.
"Together
we are planting a seed for an Alliance of Civilizations to grow in our
world, and this will help the seeds of hundreds of thousands of
Alliances of Civilizations to flourish," he told a news
conference.
Erdogan
said extremism was not confined to any one religion and terrorists
might attack any target regardless of its culture.
Istanbul
hosted in September a three-day inter-civilization conference themed
"Meeting of Civilizations".
Erdogan
described the conference, which brought together delegations from up
to 30 European and Mideast countries including Israel, as the result
of cooperation with Zapatero.
In
a March summit with his Spanish counterpart, Erdogan threw his weight
behind Zapatero's initiative.
He
then appointed his chief foreign policy adviser Rafet Akgunay as
Turkey's representative in the project.
Strategic
Spanish
Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos called for a "strategic
alliance with the Arab-Muslim states who feel as under threat as do
we, if not more so, from Al-Qaeda terrorism, and who are determined to
combat this menace."
He
stressed that the success of security and intelligence services in
arresting hundreds of terrorists "will not serve much purpose if
at the same time Al-Qaeda multiplies its recruitment".
Arab
League General Secretary Amr Moussa, who last year personally invited
Zapatero to formally present his initiative, on Friday praised
Zapatero after arriving in Barcelona.
"I
fully support (the idea), I am in favor of the initiative of Mr
Zapatero," he said.
"It
is a very important step; it is more positive to discuss about an
alliance of civilizations than to be talking of clashes of
civilizations."
Andre
Azoulay, counselor to Morocco's King Mohamed VI, added his praise,
saying that Zapatero's alliance was juxtaposed with what he termed the
"clash of civilizations" -- an allusion to the US strategy
on countering terrorism.
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