Annan: Politics at heart of Muslim-West divide
Politics – and not religion – is at the heart of the growing rift between the West and the Muslim world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday after scholars, politicians and religious leaders convened in Turkey to discuss ways to improve the increasingly violent relations between the societies.
“We should start by reaffirming and demonstrating that the problem is not the Koran or the Torah or the Bible,” Annan said in a written statement in response to a report by the multinational group of scholars that sets out proposals to overcome the rift.
“Indeed, I have often said that the problem is never the faith, it is the faithful and how they behave toward each other.”
The report, which will be made public after being formally presented to Annan at a ceremony in Istanbul later today, says the Arab-Israeli conflict is a critical symbol of the deepening rift and calls for the resumption of the Middle East peace process, according to UN officials.
The group was formed in 2005 as part of a UN-backed “Alliance of Civilisations” initiative.
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and South African activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among the members of the group.
The UN initiative is co-sponsored by the prime ministers of Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, and Turkey, which is 99% Muslim.
The two leaders, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met yesterday in an Ottoman palace on the Bosporus, where they discussed Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, particularly the bitter impasse over the island of Cyprus, which has been divided between Turkish and Greek-speaking parts since an abortive coup in 1974 was blocked by a Turkish invasion.
Turkey has propped up a government of ethnic Turks on the North of the island that is not recognised by any other country, and refuses to recognise the Greek-led government in the South.
The EU has demanded that Turkey open its ports and airports to Cyprus, a member of the European Union since 2004, by the end of the year or risk the suspension of its membership talks.
