Gaffe threatens bridge to Islam

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - Europe is struggling to repair damage wrought by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to its goal of being a vital bridge between the United States and the Muslim world.

In the past two weeks, envoys from the European Union and several European countries have fanned out across the Middle East for talks with local leaders, including the former pariah state Iran.

They have been hammering out a message: the West takes the worries of Muslim countries seriously, especially their economic woes and the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

At home, European leaders have been multiplying appeals for religious tolerance, meeting Muslim leaders and visiting mosques to drive home their contention that any conflict would not be a "clash of civilisations".

Much of this hard work now threatens to unravel, thanks to an astonishing gaffe by Berlusconi. Briefing Italian journalists in Berlin last week, Berlusconi said the West "should be confident of the superiority of our civilisation" and urged Europe to "reconstitute itself on the basis of its Christian roots".

European and Arab leaders rushed to condemn Berlusconi.

"I consider his remark as racist and by such a remark, he has crossed the limits of reasons and decency," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said. "We don't believe that there is a superior civilization and if he is thinking so, he is utterly mistaken and I believe he would have to teach himself, to read, to learn about the Muslim civilization. Otherwise, he will put himself and Italy in a very embarrassing position with regard to all of us in the Mediterranean, in the Arab world and in the Muslim world."

Europe's notion of itself as a link is founded on the belief that it is more sensitive to Muslim matters than Washington, and even-handed on the key issue of Palestine, where the US is seen as siding only with Israel.

One reason for this thinking is that the Middle East is geographically closer to Europe - the Arab world is its "back yard", just as Latin America is the neighbouring region to the US.

The two main former colonial powers, Britain and France, have close ties with former Muslim possessions, such as Algeria, Lebanon, Tunisia and Syria, as well as Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman and Pakistan. An estimated 15 million Muslims live in the 15 states of the EU.

Shibley Telhami, senior fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said the Middle East was the Achilles' heel of US diplomacy.

"There are issues that resonate across the Islamic world, particularly issues related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Telhami said. "One of the failures of US policy to date has been its exclusive policy of relations with Governments without building cultural bridges with populations in the Muslim world."

How far the Europeans are able to push this bridging role is unclear. Easing tensions with Muslim countries is one thing, but to get them actively onside is another. Poor, vulnerable countries such as Pakistan and Egypt may be encouraged by the European cheque book in the form of aid or debt forgiveness.


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