Posted on 11/14/2005 6:14:45 PM PST by nuconvert
Former Iran President Speaks Against Nukes
By BRIAN MURPHY, AP Religion Writer
Mon Nov 14, 2005
The former president of Iran urged all religious leaders Monday to fight to abolish atomic and chemical weapons — an apparent attempt to support Tehran's position as it nears another key showdown with U.N. nuclear inspectors.
Mohammad Khatami told a conference on Islam's global roles that it was the duty of "the entire religious community to save the world from atomic bombs and chemical weapons." The comments fit with repeated statements by Iranian officials that their nuclear program is peaceful and atomic arms are against the nation's political and religious principles.
Khatami also took an indirect swipe at the United States and allies for remarks that "fan the flame of war between Muslims and Christians."
Khatami's comments carried extra resonance in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board is scheduled to meet Nov. 24 and could consider referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council to face possible sanctions over its nuclear program.
Current proposals to avoid U.N. action include possibly asking Iran to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia.
Washington says Iran seeks to produce nuclear warheads, but Tehran says its program is solely to produce electricity and insists every nation has that right.
Khatami did not specifically name the United States, but sharply denounced past phrases from the White House and other nations that have spoken of a "crusade" against Islamic terrorism. Many Muslims find the word offensive because it evokes the memories of the medieval Christian armies sent to battle Islam.
"To fan the flames of war between Muslims and Christians is an unethical act ... only made by a bullying and violence-seeking people," Khatami said.
The conference, hosted by Austria before it takes over the European Union presidency in January, includes some of the most prominent — and embattled — Muslim leaders, including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Austria's foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, urged Western and Muslim leaders to show greater courage to unite against groups promoting cultural intolerance and violence in the name of Islam.
"We should not concede the public space to those who abuse religion ... and abuse culture to reach their aims," she said. "We must speak out."
Plassnik said the message of the gathering was to display "courage, not to shy away from difficult subjects" such as the roots of terrorism and social tensions in Europe — most recently driven home by the riots across France and last week's triple suicide blasts in Amman, Jordan, that killed 57 people.
"We are facing challenges within Islam," she said. "The challenges of pluralism, the challenges of development, the challenges inside our own European community ... We have to listen to each other, and we have to open our eyes and ears."
A message from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for the "logic of peace" to overcome radical Islam and other forms of extremism.
"We must respond to extremism, but not in kind," said Annan's text, read by his personal representative, Lakhdar Brahimi. "If we respond to violence with violence, to anathema with anathema, to exclusion with exclusion, we accept the logic of those we hope to defeat."
Nuclear Energy or Nuclear Weapons?... Extensive Concealment and Deception Record
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