Iraq urges Muslims to decry terrorism

VIENNA, Austria -- A conference called to seek new ways forward for Muslims remained preoccupied Tuesday with a familiar theme: Islamic terrorism and how to challenge it.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani appealed to clerics and scholars to sharpen their denunciations of "criminals" who wage violence in the name of Islam. His Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, predicted that more attacks are inevitable for his nation and elsewhere.

Others looked toward Muslim communities in Europe and saw the French riots as part of worrying trajectory that includes the London bombings in July and last year's slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Their comments reflected how much the concerns about extremism dominate any discussions on Islam's future and how little consensus exists on how to respond. Talabani said it was time for stronger and sustained condemnations from moderate Islamic opinion shapers -- taking cues from the stunning street protests by Jordanians following the Nov. 9 triple bombings that killed 57 people.

"It is incumbent on Muslim theologians -- and all Muslim thinkers -- to make sure these criminals have no peace and have no room," Talabani told the gathering of religious and political leaders examining Islam's roles in a world of borderless commerce and culture.

His comments came shortly after two attacks in Iraq targeting police: a car bomb blast in Baghdad that killed four police officers and gunfire in the northern city of Kirkuk that left four officers dead. U.S. and Iraqi forces, meanwhile, pressed ahead with an offensive against suspected insurgents near the Syrian border.

"Terrorism is a scourge that the world is suffering under. . . . It will grow if we don't act," he said.

Karzai also warned that failure to crush Taliban-led terrorism in his country could have wider consequences.

But he predicted more attacks to come. Twin suicide bombings Monday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed at least nine people and were blamed on militants with links to al-Qaida.

"Individual acts of terrorism we will continue to suffer for quite some time as well as the rest of the world," Karzai told journalists following his speech at the conference, which ends Wednesday.

Europe needs to pay particular attention, noted Andre Gingrich, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Vienna.

He described the lack of job opportunities and role models for young Muslim men in Europe as "a true crisis" that possibly motivated the four suicide bombers in London in July and has fed the riots that forced a state of emergency in France.

"The idea of becoming an Islamic warrior . . . is able to gain a dangerous and seductive attraction," he said.

The conference has sought to sidestep direct political squabbles despite some clear differences, including an Iranian delegation led by former President Mohammad Khatami and a U.S. presence directed by Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

But Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik made a diplomatic jab apparently aimed at Khatami's hard-line successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last month said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

"It is not acceptable at all to question the right of existence of another," said Plassnik, whose nation takes over the European Union presidency on Jan. 1.

Fried also used the sidelines of the conference to amplify U.S. claims that Iran seeks to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is only for energy-producing reactors.

"The world should contemplate a nuclear weapons-armed Iran with the greatest of concern," Fried told journalists. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board holds a key meeting on Iran's nuclear program next week at its Vienna headquarters.

Fried said Europe and the United States should make supporting Islamic reformers "our great primary focus."

"In fact, the ideologies of hatred and totalitarianism which exist in parts of the Middle East constitute a threat to us," he said.

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