Wednesday, 20 July 2005WASHINGTON (Bahar GULCICEK, JTW) - Earlier this week, US Congressman Tom Tancredo stated during a radio interview that the US should bomb Muslim holy sites in retalation for extremist attacking the United States with nuclear weapons.
"Tancredo: Well, what if you said something like, "If this happens in the United States and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims." You could take out their holy sites.
Campbell: You're talking about bombing Mecca?
Tancredo: Yeah. What if you said, "We recognize this is the ultimate threat to the United States, so this is the ultimate response." I'm just throwing out some ideas because you would be talking about taking the most draconian measures you could possibly imagine. Because other than that, all you could do is, once again, tighten up internally."
TURKISH FM GUL CONDEMNS TANCREDO
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has described comments by US congressman Tancredo's statement of that Washington could destroy Islamic holy sites if Muslim terrorists launched a nuclear attack against America as irresponsible and thoughtless.
Foreign Minister Abdullah G+-l said that the suggestion by Congressman Tom Tancredo that the US could "take out" the holy sites of Islam in retaliation for a nuclear strike against the US showed that fanatics could emerge anywhere.
"This was nothing but a fanatic speaking completely personally, irresponsibly and without thought of how far his statements would reach or what kind of problems they would create," G+-l said after meeting with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern in Ankara.
"This shows that this kind of fanatical person can emerge anywhere," he said. "This kind of speech is the thing we need least these days." G+-l said he strongly condemned Tancredo's comments, though said that he believed that neither the US administration or the American people shared the congressman's views.
Despite criticism at home and abroad, Tancredo has refused to apologize for his statement, made on radio last week, claiming his comments had been taken out of context.
Dr. Ihsan Bal, International Terrorism Expert from ISRO, says there is no difference between Usame Bin Ladin and Tancredo's ideas. "Both seeks conflict, not a solution".
Nilgun Gulcan, Turkish political scientist, also condemned Tancredo and said Tancredo's ideas are worse than Usame Bin Laden's.
Tancredo argues that there is a clash of civilization and Islam is enemy of Christianity.
JTW
20 July 2005 |
Wednesday, 20 July 2005
Bahar GULCICEK
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