Tutu: Muslims Not Just Angry About Cartoons

February 28, 2006

Source: The Mercury News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13982693.htm

On February 28, 2006 the Associated Press reported, "The furor over the Prophet Muhammad drawings is a small part of an expanding divide between Islam and the West, or what international leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as the 'symptom of a more serious disease.' Attending a U.N.-sponsored conference aimed at healing the deepening rift, Tutu and 19 other delegates agreed that key ways to bridge the chasm were reaching out to young people and providing more education. Even then, they agreed it would take years of dialogue and practical steps before the rift can be healed... As the conference wrapped up Tuesday in this Persian Gulf state, more than 5,000 children ages 8 to 12 demonstrated in Karachi, Pakistan, at a rally organized by Pakistan's largest Islamic group. They chanted 'Hang those who insulted the prophet!' and burned a coffin draped in American, Israeli and Danish flags. Tutu, a retired Anglican archbishop from South Africa, said the drawings published last year by a Danish newspaper were just a sign of a far broader problem. 'What has happened and the aftermath has been seen as a symptom of a more serious disease,' said Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. 'Had relationships been different, one, the cartoons might not have happened, or if they had, they probably would have been handled differently.'"