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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Condor who wrote (2660)	10/4/2001 7:37:59 PM
From: Condor	Respond to of 281500

Agence France-Presse ROME (October 3, 2001 8:41 p.m. EDT) - Silvio Berlusconi's controversial outburst on western civilization's "superiority" over Islam, which caused so much consternation in Arab countries, came back to haunt him Wednesday -- on his party's own Web site. The Italian prime minister insisted he had been misquoted by a mischievous Italian press corps. But his own Forza Italia party Web site quotes him as saying during his Berlin visit last week: "The West must be conscious of the superiority of its culture and put in place a process of development for part of the world which remains 1,400 years behind". The web site, under the heading "West means tolerance", made it clear it was quoting Berlusconi during his visit to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin. An opposition member of parliament, Roberto Giachetti, of Italy's centre-left, discovered the faux pas on a trawl through the Internet. "The enemy is at home," he quipped. The rest of the item continues in the same vein. "Western civilization has as its values the understanding of diversity and tolerance. "The West was a great crossroads of culture, history, thought and life, traditions; a civilization which built a system of values and principles which has fostered well-being for the populations of the countries which adopted it," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "The value of diversity is a recognized value. The capacity of integration, tolerance and solidarity are the values which have made our civilization a fact of which we must be proud," he said. The prime minister, 65, met with the envoys of eight Muslim states for three hours on Tuesday during which he denied saying that the West was superior to Islam, and instead claimed his comments had been misinterpreted. His comments brought international condemnation on Italy. nandotimes.com

To: Condor who wrote (2660)	10/5/2001 7:44:15 AM
From: JustTradeEm	Respond to of 281500

Has anyone learned anything on the reaction of Italians to the remarks of their Berlusconi. Condor, interesting segment on NPR yesterday regarding Berlusconi. May be on their website, haven't checked .. According to the discussion, the feeling of many western and European diplomats is that he is basically correct. However, in our world of PCness .... his mistake was saying what he actually believes. Hence the rush to get their quotes published bashing him while winking behind their back and giving him an "atta boy" .... Peace .... JB