ZAMAN DAILY NEWSPAPER: Chirac to Pope: Don't Confuse Islam with Islamism

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Chirac to Pope: Don't Confuse Islam with Islamism

Pope Benedict XVI’s recent remarks about Islam and the prophet Mohammed provoked the first reaction from a western leader; French President Jacques Chirac warned against confusing Islam with a religion with a radical movement. "We must avoid everything that increases tension between people or religions," he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio. "We must avoid any confusion between Islam, which is of course a respected and upright religion, and radical Islamism, which is a totally different form of behavior that is political in nature," he said, according to AFP.

In a conference last week in Paris about efforts to create dialogue between different cultures, Chirac focused on the threat of separation between civilizations when he argued that there are efforts to create a rift between the West and Islam, between secularists and religious people, and between the north and south.