Hostility between western countries and Muslim ones helps terrorists, leaders from Egypt and Mauritania said Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly.
Speaking in New York, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdoul Gheit said many Muslims feel a lack of tolerance toward their religion in some western countries.
“We find the West, in general, being drawn into a clash with the Muslim world,” Gheit said. “This clash will serve no one except extremists and those who hold perverted ideas on both sides. It will not be in the interest of security and stability of the world. It will not be in the interest of moderates. In such a clash, the winner is a loser and the victor is defeated.”
Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf of Mauritania said his country is fighting terrorism and extremism. Mauritanian scholars promote Islam as a religion of “tolerance, virtue and acceptance of others.”
The General Assembly opened less than two weeks after the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The day featured rival demonstrations over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, an Islamic cultural center planned for a former warehouse 2 blocks from the World Trade Center site.