Erdogan corrects John Howard’s Islam terminology

4/27/2005 5:00:00 PM GMT

Source: zaman.com

When meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan corrected his Australian counterpart’sterminology of Islam.

Howard had used the expression "moderate Islam" when giving a speech saying, "One of the factors that will block the path of terrorism is the formation of democracy in moderate Islamic countries like Indonesia and Turkey."

When Erdogan took the floor to give his speech, he corrected Howard by saying: "After the September 11 attacks, the expression, 'moderate Islam' that is widely being used is leading to different interpretations. There is no need to put a different adjective before or after the word 'Islam'. Islam means peace. It rejects all kinds of excessiveness."

Howard then noted that he had meant "true Islam".