Follow-up to my posts #4704 & #4705:
Berlusconi Vaunts West's 'Superiority'
Steven Erlanger New York Times Service
Thursday, September 27, 2001
BERLIN The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in a briefing to journalists, praised Western civilization on Wednesday as superior to that of the Islamic world and urged Europe to "reconstitute itself on the basis of its Christian roots."
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Mr. Berlusconi, in Berlin for a surprise meeting to discuss international cooperation against terrorism President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, used language that was unconventional for politicians in describing aspects of Muslim society and, also, anti-globalization protesters.
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As it designs a strategy against terrorism, Mr. Berlusconi said, the West should trust in the supremacy of its values.
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"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," he 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 people," Mr. 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.
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iht.com |
