Posted on 10/25/2001 9:15:37 AM PDT by RCW2001
Thursday, October 25 11:32 PM SGT
The notion that the fight against terrorism is really a US showdown with Islam is growing in Muslim nations, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ismail Cem warned Thursday.
Speaking in Brussels at a seminar on stability in the Caucasus, Cem -- whose Muslim nation is allied with Washington through NATO -- pointedly described the United States as a country willing to defend Muslims.
"As for wrong perceptions, wrong ideas, one that gives me concern is the 'USA against Islam' kind of demagogy, which is gaining ground in the Islamic world, I have to confess," Cem told a seminar in Brussels.
"Of course this is totally wrong," he added.
"We somehow seem to forget that the United States was the first country which fought against the perpetrators of genocide in Bosnia, and it was again the United States who came to the rescue of Muslim Kosovars," he said.
Turkey, which is 99.8 percent Muslim, is a member of NATO, which has declared the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to have been attacks on the entire 19-nation alliance.
Cem, who travelled earlier this week to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, on the front lines with Afghanistan as US air strikes continue, said the "USA against Islam" idea was being "heavily advocated" in the Muslim world.
"I believe it is our duty to fight against such exortations, and to fight against being unfair against a country that has done so much in the past for Muslim populations in difficulty," he said.
He renewed a call he made Sunday in Azerbaijan's capital Baku for the European Union and Organization of the Islamic Conference to jointly organize a meeting that would underscore "the harmony of civilizations."
Cem also criticized "strong powers interested in Afghanistan" whom he said were already trying to create a post-Taliban administration in Kabul "that would suit their interests."
"We see that some neighbors of Afghanistan are already planning how to take advantage of what's going on, how to place their friends or followers in key positions for the future of Afghanistan," he said.
Though Cem did not name any country in particular, Afghanistan's neighbors include such regional powers as Russia, India and Pakistan -- which all have known nuclear arsenals -- as well as Iran and Iraq.
The Turkish government said Wednesday it had agreed that Afghan opposition groups should meet in Istanbul to discuss the future of their war-torn country, but stressed that Ankara was not involved in the process.
On his trip to Uzbekistan, where US troops are being positioned as the assault on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network unfolds, Cem said he discovered that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis was being seen there as a "very major" problem.
"In Uzbekistan in particular, my homologue and my interlocutor told me that this ongoing fight in the Middle East was hindering them from taking a more active part in the fight against terrorism, as part of the coalition against terrorism," he said.
I have to admit that it is an idea that is becoming more and more popular in my house. Considering Islam's posture towards the West for the past several centuries, it's about time.
The war between the West and Islam is inevitable. Our so-called Islamic allies will show their true colors within a few short months. They will never permit us to destroy Al Qaeda because they ultimately support its ends.
If you study the koran you find that mohammedism is against anything except itself. Why should we not be at war with them when they've been at war with us for centuries?
God Save America (Please)
They will at gunpoint...so to speak. Countries like Saudi Arabia will respond our requests when they figure out that the consequences of not cooperating are far worse than the alternative. Until then they will keep on trying to bluff us. Iraq and Iran are a more problematic.
I'm sure this is the reason Bush's rhetoric is so careful.
If there's going to be a WW III scenario, it would be better if the bad guy's launched it.
Then we can finish it without moral qualms, wherever it goes!
Seems that the Koran is the Mien Kampf of the Muslim world.
Mohammed's Prophecies
of the Imam Mahdi
If anyone has any info on this subject, please post it there.
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