UN Chief Warns of Global War Over Religion

Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his final address to the United Nations General Assembly before he retires at the end of the year. During the speech, which comes on the heels of the media-generated controversy regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s quoting of a text on Islam, Annan said, “insensitivity towards other people’s beliefs or sacred symbols –- intentional or otherwise -- is seized upon by those who seem eager to foment a new war of religion on a global scale.” “Moreover, this climate of fear and suspicion is constantly refuelled by the violence in the Middle East”, he said, adding: “We might like to think of the Arab-Israeli conflict as just one regional conflict amongst many, but it is not. No other conflict carries such a powerful symbolic and emotional charge among people far removed from the battlefield.”