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Azerbaijani parliamentarian addresses PACE: â€œOne cannot touch upon religious sense of millions of Moslems by using expressions such as Islamic extremismâ€

23 June 2010 15:45 (UTC +04:00)

Ganira Pashayeva said it was pleasant that the Alliance of Civilizations initiated by Turkey and Spain had become a UN project and was supported by over 100 members of the organization and friendship groups of the international organizations.
â€œBeing PACE we should strongly support this alliance and struggle against the increase of intolerance, decrease of tolerance, xenophobia in Europe. We all should concern over the increase of Islamophobia in Europe. We should analyze its reasons and struggle against them. One of the visible reasons is that people in Europe have little true knowledge about Islam. Therefore, we should strengthen our efforts so that the youth in Europe can get true information about Christianity, Islam and Judaism. But as my colleague from the Netherlands Mr. Koks said the most serious problem is that some politicians, media outlets and nongovernmental organizations play big role in the increase of Islamophobia. We should struggle against it. Thatâ€™s why, we should call on the governments, politicians, NGOs and mass media to be attentive in this issue. We hear some politicians use expression â€œIslamic extremismâ€ in some European media outlets. This is a very wrong expression, there can not be extremism where there is Islam,â€ she said.

Pashayeva said that it was not right to touch upon religious sense of millions of Moslems by using such expressions: â€œPeople who know Islam, who read holy book of Islam knows that Islam is religion of love and respect for others. Prejudices are very danger in a globalizing world. We must assume as a basis one conception which can eliminate â€œwe and theyâ€ â€“ the symbol of polarization. We must not forget that impatience cause confrontation. Unfortunately, impatience towards other religions and nations, ethnic cleansing became state policy of some countries. It must worry all of us. It was just the result of it. Armenian government conducted ethnic cleansing in 1988 and turned out all Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Today, there is not any Azerbaijani in Armenia. More than one million Azerbaijanis are refugees and IDPsâ€.

MP reminded Armenian massacre in Khojaly: â€œFor all that, Armenian church is still remains in Azerbaijan. But mosques, historical-cultural monuments belonging to Azerbaijan have been destroyed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. We must learn from such incidents and struggle against it. Otherwise, tension and conflicts will increase in the world and we will leave a worse legacy to future generations. We all must say â€“ â€œIntercultural dialogueâ€ is possible against those, who offer confrontation of cultures for the sake of Europe and the worldâ€.