"Let us go to the solution of the Palestinian issue; other things will themselves fall in line," Musharraf told the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative at the Sheraton New York. He was participating in a panel on 'Urgent Issues and Innovative Solutions,' moments after former US President Bill Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush addressed the opening plenary.
Musharraf drew applause when he said, in an obvious reference to Iraq, that new fronts should not be opened. "We must start closing fronts."
Commenting on the Danish cartoon controversy, he said it was time to build bridges and not burn them. All political disputes around the world at this point involve Muslims, he said, adding that they are reeling under poverty and deprivation. "And we come out with things like the Danish cartoons or the Pope's remarks against our Prophet," he said. "I don't think anyone has the right to hurt anybody's feeling, least of all, at this time when there is so much tension."
The whole world is to understand that there is a double problem, he said. "While in the Islamic world, because of all this turmoil, the Muslims think that Islam is being targeted by the world, the world thinks that Islam is a religion of militancy; (that) it is a religion of intolerance and extremism. It is not the case," he said, stressing that this view was being reinforced by obscurantist fringe groups in the Muslim world.
Asked by moderator Thomas L Friedman, the foreign affairs columnist at The New York Times, what one wish he would like granted (if Clinton was the genie doing just that), Musharraf hoped for market access into the United States (amid applause) since "that will contribute towards expansion of industry," create jobs, combat unemployment, and thus strike at the roots of terrorism. "We have managed our economy well," he said, and also added support toward education and health to his wish list.
