Posted on 09/27/2006 9:30:59 PM PDT by quesney
Published: 09/25/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
ASGHAR KHAN/Gulf News
Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish Prime Minister, says the West is constantly under attack from Muslims.
Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish prime minister, defended Pope Benedict XVI’s comments about Islam, saying on Friday the pontiff had no need to apologise and asking why Muslims never did. the Spanish media said yesterday.
“Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?” Aznar told a conference in Washington on “global threats” on Friday.
On Saturday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted as saying that more European leaders should have spoken out in support of the Pope after he made his disputed comments on Islam.
"I was disappointed there were not more European leaders who said 'naturally the Pope has the right to express his views'," Barroso was quoted as saying to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
"The problem is not the statements of the Pope but the reaction of the extremists," the paper quoted him as saying.
Referring to the Moorish conquest of much of the Iberian Peninsula from the eighth to the 15th century, Aznar said: “It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the Pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries.”
Aznar, who was the Prime Minister from 1996 to 2004, took Spain into the American-led war in Iraq, against massive public opposition.
Addressing Friday’s conference in Washington on “global threats”, Aznar said: “We are living in a time of war ... It’s them or us. The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us.”
“We must face up to an Islam that is ambitious, that is radical and that influences the Muslim world, a fundamentalist Islam that we must confront because we don’t have any choice.
“We are constantly under attack and we must defend ourselves,” he said.
“I support Ferdinand and Isabella,” he proclaimed, in reference to the medieval Catholic monarchs who drove the Moors out of Spain in 1492.
Barroso said the caution on the part of European leaders was probably due to "worries about a possible confrontation" as well as a "certain form of political correctness."
"We have to defend our values," he said. "We should also encourage the moderate leaders in the Muslim world - and they're the majority - to distance themselves from this extremism," Barroso was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile,the Pope is due to meet Muslim envoys on Monday as part of a diplomaticc initiative to boost inter-faith dialogue.
The meeting is to be held at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence
Money quotes:
“It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the Pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries.”
"The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us.”
"It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the Pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries.”
“We must face up to an Islam that is ambitious, that is radical and that influences the Muslim world, a fundamentalist Islam that we must confront because we don’t have any choice."
ping
Anzar's always been on the "clue train." It was the Spanish voters who threw him out after the bombings that were the clueless.
Then the liberals tooks over the Spanish government.
We don't. I hope the Muslims enjoyed it while it lasted.
Frenchmen renting ferries. Some things never change, do they?
Finally someone gets it.
Is the Western leadership finally starting to wake up?
First AU PM John Howard. Then GER PM Merkel. Now the former Spanish PM.
Maybe....
To TROP, Islam means never having to say you're sorry..
"First AU PM John Howard. Then GER PM Merkel. Now the former Spanish PM."
The best thing the Islamofascists can do is keep doing the crazy things they're doing. Look what happened to Israeli left after the Hezbollah attacks -- West Bank is now off the menu indefinitely. Eventually, the homicidal threat will become obvious to everyone -- especially if the Pope is hurt in *any* way. Even European leftists will have no choice but to wake up from their PC denial, just as the Israeli left has.
The spirit of El Cid lives!
I never say I'm sorry to the worthless bastards.
Why? Because we are moral people and they are not. They know we can be beaten over the head with our own self imposed rules of conduct and they dont apply to them. Same things Liberals do to us accusing us of being hate filled blah blah blahs while they say and act anyway they want becasue no one expects that conduct from them anyway.
Awright! I love this. Is he going to be the new Oriana Fallaci?
These leaders that you mention happen to be from conservative side of their respective country. In fact, most conservative leaders seem to 'get it', with the exception of Chirac.
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