Secretary General Warns of Possible Global Religious Warfare

Opening the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Secretary General Kofi Annan, in one paragraph of his speech (full text), warned of the potential of international religious warfare:

[A]t the very time when international migration has brought millions of people of different creed or culture to live as fellow-citizens, the misconceptions and stereotypes underlying the idea of a "clash of civilizations" have come to be more and more widely shared; and 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, this time on a global scale.

DPA reported Tuesday on this aspect of Annan's remarks.