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quote:Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday went out of his way to stress what every other leader backing America's "war on terrorism" has been desperate to deny - that the looming conflict is, at bottom, a clash of civilisations.
On three occasions during a lightning visit to Berlin, Mr Berlusconi enthusiastically proclaimed views that will appal western leaders and be seen by many Muslims as confirming their worst suspicions. He boasted of the "supremacy" and "superiority" of western civilisation and called on Europe to recognise its "common Christian roots".
The Italian prime minister, who has been under pressure over the handling of demonstrations at this year's G8 summit in Genoa, also used his trip to claim a link between Islamist terrorism and the anti-globalisation movement. He said there was a "strange unanimity" between them.
Both, said Mr Berlusconi, were the enemies of western civilisation.
Standing beside the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, at a joint press conference, he declared that he and his host "consider that the attacks on New York and Washington are attacks not only on the United States but on our civilisation, of which we are proud bearers, conscious of the supremacy of our civilisation, of its discoveries and inventions, which have brought us democratic institutions, respect for the human, civil, religious and political rights of our citizens, openness to diversity and tolerance of everything."
Read the full article here. For the man partly responsible for the human and civil rights abuses that the Italian police committed in Genoa - beating up journalists, that kind of thing - to talk about "respect for the human, civil, religious and political rights of our citizens, openness to diversity and tolerance of everything"... it's such shamefaced hypocrisy it's unbelievable. But for him to also take the opportunity to suggest that there's a "strange unanimity" between "Islamist terrorism and the anti-globalisation movement"... words fail me.
I hope to God someone with clout distances themselves from these remarks, let alone condemns, but given how pally Blair's been with Berlusconi in the past, I'm not optimistic... |
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