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| Reference Material |
| West superior to Islam world, says Italian PM By Steven Erlanger NY Times News Service September 28, 2001, Today BERLIN � The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in a briefing to journalists on Wednesday, praised Western civilization as superior to that of the Islamic world and urged Europe to �reconstitute itself on the basis of its Christian roots.� Berlusconi, here for a surprise meeting�..with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, voiced views likely to outrage Turkey and other Islamic allies of the West and infuriate anti-globalization protesters. As it designs a strategy against terrorism, Berlusconi said, the West should trust in the supremacy of its values. �We should be confident of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion,� Berlusconi said. �This respect certainly does not exist in Islamic countries.� The West, given the superiority of its values, �is bound to occidentalize and conquer new peoples,� Berlusconi said. �It has done it with the communist world and part of the Islamic world, but unfortunately, a part of the Islamic world is 1,400 years behind. From this point of view, we must be conscious of the strength and force of our civilization.� Berlusconi, who has been criticized for the force Italian police used against anti-globalization protesters in Genoa in July, said he saw �a singular coincidence between the protesters and the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington.� The terrorists were trying �to stop the corrupting effect of Western civilization on the Islamic world,� he said, while �the anti-globalization movement criticizes from within Western civilization the Western way of life, trying to make Western civilization feel guilty.� ***** Epilogue: PM Berlusconi was later forced to apologize for his views when a delegation from the Arab and Islamic world flew to Rome to confront him on the issue. ACA. |