U.S.-Islamic Conference Opens in Qatar

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US-Islamic Conference Opens in Qatar With Israel at the Core of Differences

DOHA, Qatar Jan. 10 — Washington's support for Israel is at the root of differences between the United States and Islamic nations, Qatar's emir and Muslim scholars said Saturday at the start of a conference on U.S.-Islamic relations.

Muslims criticized the United States for its strategic relationship with the Jewish state and an American panelist said those ties would never change.

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"If we cannot contain and reverse the growing chasm between the West and especially the United States and the Islamic world, it will become the underlying structural flaw that will worsen many other problems," including terrorism, the Middle East problem and global poverty, said panelist Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Islamic world wonders why the international community does not put greater pressure on Israel to force a withdrawal from occupied Arab land, and why "all pressures fall on the Arab side alone," said Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040110_1299.html