Gulf | Qatar
12-point plan to improve dialogue with US outlined
A three-day forum which ends today aims to find ways to bridge the growing gap between the US and the Islamic world.
- By Barbara Bibbo', Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 February 19, 2007
- Image Credit: AP
- Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa and Qatar’s First Deputy Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jabr Al Thani, at the opening session of the US-Islamic World Forum Conference in Doha.
Doha: A three-day forum which ends today aims to find ways to bridge the growing gap between the US and the Islamic world.
Addressing the event on Saturday evening, Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jabor Al Thani, Qatar's first deputy premier and foreign minister outlined a 12-point proposal to improve dialogue between the Islamic world and the United States.
It included the settlement of the Palestinian issue, the eradication of poverty and the struggle against terrorism by policies that address its causes.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar has organised the US-Islamic World Forum in cooperation with the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank. It is being attended by over 200 delegates from both religious and secular backgrounds in 34 countries.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa said the Islamic world does not hate America, but disagreed with its "biased and double standard policies towards Palestine, Iran's nuclear issue and Iraq."
Biggest external threat
Prominent Muslim scholar Shaikh Yousuf Al Qaradawi, president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), said the US administration had singled out the Islamic world as the new foe after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.
"We are not against the American public in general. We are just opposed to the policies of the current US administration." Eighty per cent of Arabs consider the United States the biggest external threat to their security after Israel, a survey conducted by a US polling institute in six Arab countries revealed.
Professor Shibley Telhami, a US-based researcher told the forum on Saturday that a recent poll among Arab citizens showed anti-Americanism was on the rise in the region.
The survey of a total of 3,850 respondents in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco, also found that US President George Bush is the second most unpopular politician after former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair comes third.
"The United States is perceived as the second biggest threat to Arab people, after Israel. The United Kingdom comes third," he said addressing the opening session of the forum in Doha.
It found that close to 80 per cent of Arabs consider Israel and the United States the two biggest external threats to their security. The survey also found that nearly four out of 10 Arabs named President George W. Bush as the most unpopular foreign leader, ahead of Israeli leader Ariel Sharon (11 per cent).
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