Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (Dakar)
13 March 2008
Dakar — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday promised in Dakar to "fight against those who want to justify violence against the religion."
"We will fight against those who want to justify violence against the religion and promote understanding among the Alliance of Civilisations. We will strengthen cooperation between the OIC (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and the United Nations in this area (religion)," Ban said.
He delivered his speech at the opening of the two-day 11th Islamic Ummah summit in Dakar, Thursday.
The recently established Alliance of Civilisations (early January 2008) is a UN institution intended to promote dialogue between the "religions, civilisations and cultures in the world."
The UN secretary-general pronounced his address a few minutes after his OIC counterpart, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who dwelt on the first report on "Islamophobia" issued by the OIC in Dakar, Wednesday.
He said that the Islamic Ummah summit was held "at a difficult moment for the Islamic world" before adding : "We pay attention to the situation in Darfur" and other predominantly Muslim countries.
"Israel has to comply with the law and international legality and show restraint. We condemn the Israeli attacks on Palestinian peoples," he said, calling both parties to the conflict to make peace.
He lauded the progress made in the Iranian nuclear issue. Ban Ki-moon also invited Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been attending the Dakar summit, to "comply with international legality" by honouring its commitments to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Agence de Presse Sénégalaise. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Guys, get it right please. Ban Ki-Moon was not talking about "violence against religion" (what IS that, anyway?), but about terrorists committing violence IN THE NAME OF religion.
Read his speech again here:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=20 0