Posted on 02/21/2006 7:08:27 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
FORMER US president Bill Clinton has urged western and Muslim leaders to hold talks following the recent outrage over cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Violent protests have been held around the world following the publication of a series of cartoons – initially printed in a Danish newspaper – depicting Mohammed.
The protests resulted in several deaths and buildings being firebombed.
Mr Clinton today said it was important to find out what was behind the cartoon and the reasons for their publication.
"I think that we ought to have such an attempt to take all of this brouhaha (about the cartoons) ... and use it to force a dialogue," Mr Clinton told a global business forum in Sydney.
"Does anybody here know whether that cartoonist knew that it was blasphemous when he did the picture of Mohammed?
"We could use this thing to build bridges instead of burning them and we need to do that more." Mr Clinton made the comments following a wide-ranging speech to about 1000 business men and women in Sydney.
He spent almost two hours addressing the conference despite complaining of feeling unwell.
In his speech, Mr Clinton said there was a need for countries to work closely to tackle the problem of global warming, just as many nations had done in fighting terrorism.
He also took several questions from the floor, covering topics including terrorism, Australia's trade relationship with the US, allied troops in Iraq, and whether his wife Hillary Clinton would be in the race for the White House in 2008.
Mr Clinton told the audience he believed there was a chance of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but no chance of the US striking any deal with al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
And the former president joined Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to announce the provision of up to $25 million to strengthen efforts to deliver HIV/AIDS treatment in the Asia Pacific.
Yes, let's hold cartoon talks.....I've always wanted to know why Wile E. Coyote doesn't run like hell from anything marked "Acme" till it's too late....
Excellent!
'Toon toon bump!
ROTFLOL!
Very good, potlatch!
Thanks DC, the people look the same in both of them, don't they?? LOL.
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