Gul: "We should have courage in the face of Islamophobia and anti-semitism"

Decent people need to be as courageous as the extremists are in the face of threats such as Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, said President Abdullah Gul yesterday. Speaking at a dinner in honor of the attendees of the Second Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations, Gul decried how intolerance and religious and ethnic extremism have turned into great dangers such as Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Gul praised the constant expansion of the Alliance of Civilizations as a source of optimism for everyone, adding, "The great interest for this forum shows that people worldwide prefer cooperation and harmonization to conflict and defiance." Stating that alliance co-sponsors Turkey and Spain had launched a comprehensive coalition against misperception and aggressive stereotypes, he added, "We should encourage much more cooperation between cultures." On the sideline of the meeting, Gul received Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish scholar who serves as secretary-general of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC).