Arab leader decries `cult of hate'

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Arab leader decries `cult of hate'

Ex-diplomat calls for international anti-terror effort Sonia Verma STAFF REPORTER The former ambassador of the Arab League at the United Nations has called for the creation of an international agency to combat terrorism.

Clovis Maksoud said the task should be spearheaded by the Muslim and Arab world as an expression of solidarity with the fight against terrorism and supported by international law.

"The Arab and the Muslim world realize that there is a difference between resistance and terrorism, because terrorism is the cult of hate while resistance is the commitment to hope," Maksoud said during a speech last night to a standing-room-only crowd at the Canadian Arab Federation in Toronto.

He called for a "civilization of conscience" rooted in multicultural societies in North America, which hold the potential to act as a bridge between different cultures, making a "clash of civilizations" impossible.

"The U.S. is a global nation. There are more people from Ramallah in Detroit than in Ramallah itself," said Maksoud, who is now a professor at American University in Washington, D.C.

He cited expressions of solidarity between U.S. Muslims and Christians after Sept. 11.

Condemning the burning of mosques and harassment of Muslims, Maksoud then pointed out that "hundreds of Christian women wore their scarves in solidarity.

``That is the constituency of conscience.

"We cannot judge Christianity by Ku Klux Klan and we cannot judge Islam by the Taliban. That has be rubbed into our consciousness," Maksoud added.

While there still exists a great deal of anger in the Arab world over American foreign policy in the Middle East, there is no hate, Maksoud said.

The U.S. should be given the opportunity to address grievances including sanctions against Iraq and its support for Israel.

"The world today is in a new phase of history. The U.S. is beginning to recognize it is no longer a unilateral power, but it has to be recognized as a pivotal power.

``We must realize this is not the moment to put the U.S. on trial for grievances that it has created.

``It is time to render this pivotal power an opportunity to break through, to move towards a fairer, more objective, more humane appreciation to the grievances."

http://www.thestar.com/survey/asksurvey.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 29, 2001

Answers

The U.S. should be given the opportunity to address grievances including sanctions against Iraq and its support for Israel.

``We must realize this is not the moment to put the U.S. on trial for grievances that it has created.

These statements are starting to sound like a broken record.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 29, 2001.


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