A Moment of Inexplicable Candor in Italy A few days ago during a visit to Germany the Prime Minister of Italy, Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, made the claim that Western civilization was superior to that of Islam which he said was racist, inflammatory, and uneducated. In a direct quote he is reported to have said, "We should be conscious 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. This respect certainly does not exist in the Islamic countries". Of course, as Western politicians are wont to do, the following day Prime Minister Berlusconi claimed this incredibly insensitive gaffe was actually the fault of the media who had, "tried to hang me on an isolated word, taken out of context". We could wonder what exactly was the context that would have made his quoted words acceptable. It is our opinion that Prime Minister Berlusconi, in his naïve lack of statesmanship, did indeed express an opinion that is held as true by most if not all of the leaders of the Western nations. Of course in today's ultra politically-correct Western world such statements are never to be spoken aloud, not even behind closed doors, and particularly not in front of a voracious media - but, believe in their superiority they do. Perhaps we will have the much-expected 'clash of civilizations' after all. And perhaps that is a good thing not a bad thing. There is no necessity for the clash of civilizations to be a violent one, fought with guns and bombs. It should be contested with the true words, right ideas and good behaviour of Muslims practicing rightly understood Islam vying against whatever the West can put up in reply. It might be very healthy for the world to have the civilization of Islam pitted directly against the 'civilization' of the West in this manner. Many issues of right and wrong might be clarified. There is no question that at this point in human history the Western world far outstrips the Islamic world in economic and military power, but are those valid criteria for a comparison of civilizations. Does the Godless value system of the West offer any real hope for the development of a moral society, we think not. And, can a society survive and thrive if it is not a moral society, we think not. We would be only too willing to see the value systems of the West, their morals, their economics, and their politics compared objectively in the international arena to those of Islam. We don't want to fight with the West militarily, we only want the opportunity to show the Western people and the Western leaders how attractive in every way is a society rightly practicing its Islam. We must admit much of the Islamic world today is not very attractive, and is not very appealing. In fact, the state of the Islamic world today is why many who do not understand true Islam might feel as Prime Minister Berlusconi does about the Islamic world. For every wrong that exists in the Islamic world all Muslims must share the responsibility. Allah has provided us with a perfect way of life in Islam, but we as Muslims have not practiced our Islam very well. It would be unbelievably easy for Islam to prevail over the Western secular materialistic way of life. All we Muslims have to do if we want to bring about a fully and truly Islamic world is be completely faithful to Islam in our belief and practice - and, BE NICE TO EVERYONE! (30 September, 2001) click to download A Moment of Inexplicable Candor in Italy (23.5 Kb) Islamic-World's Position on the "War on Terrorism" A Moment of Inexplicable Candor in Italy Preliminary Comments on the Attack on Afghanistan A World Leader's Comments On The War On Terrorism

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