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MADRID — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined the prime ministers of Turkey and Spain on Tuesday to open a forum of some 80 nations seeking to encourage understanding between the West and Muslim countries.
Opening a two-day conference of the Alliance of Civilizations, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the U.N.-backed initiative aimed to prevent a "clash of civilizations by promoting security, understanding, tolerance and mutual respect in a globalized world."
"It aspires to build bridges that can help us to manage the differences existing in the world, particularly those linked to religious or cultural issues," Zapatero added.
The event was attended by dozens of government members, representatives of international organizations, civil society, the media and philanthropic foundations from dozens of countries.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Nigerian author and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka were expected to attend.
"In the Alliance of Civilizations process we have to achieve success. I am convinced that if we achieve success, we'll find an antidote against terrorism," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before the opening.
Zapatero presented the alliance idea to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2004 as a way to overcome misunderstandings between the West and the Arab and Muslim world and thus combat terrorism. The initiative followed the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800.
Turkey later become a co-sponsor of the project, which was adopted by the United Nations and now has the backing of more than 80 nations.
"One of the main reasons why the initiative has been supported is the extreme necessity and anxiety for tranquility and security which societies feel today," Erdogan said.
The meeting will include workshops on issues ranging from building cross-cultural understanding of conflict prevention, religion and politics at the community level.
Organizers said they planned to announce details of a media fund aimed at supporting major film productions that promote cross-cultural understanding and combat stereotypes.
They said Sheikha Mozah, chairwoman of the Qatar Foundation, was also expected to announce a major financial commitment toward the establishment of a global youth employment initiative involving corporations, major multilateral organizations and governments.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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 | Forum Seeks Muslim-Western Understanding | Associated Press | Mon Jan 14 | 0 |
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{"commentId":1365027,"authorDomain":"farooqrajasthani"}
Fear is a product of ignorance. If people get to know each other, the fear and hopefully prejudices will be reduced if not entirely eliminated.
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#1 - Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:46 AM EST{"commentId":1365648,"authorDomain":"query254"}
Not always-quite often fear is a rational response to life-threatening events. Taking action to either eliminate or evade a threat is only sensible for self-preservation.
There is also a false assumption that people are "ignorant" of Islam-when in fact for anyone who's studied this death cult will realize its inhumane, intolerant, uncivilized, war-mongering, retrogressive, anti-liberalism, anti-science, anti-modernity, etc.
Its the typical consequence one gets when they built a culture or civilization around one ancient primitive book, based on fairy tales-as all religions are mythologies. People are killing and torturing each other over ideas claimed to be given to us from some magical invisible, skyman that we have no evidence or proof of, who's never made any appearance since the invention of religion.
This is precisely why there is a 'War on Terror/Islam' and this clash between western civilization and barbarism. Islam is completely incompatible with secular-democracy. We can't pussyfoot around this issue when the facts are deadly obvious.
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