Iran's former President, Khatami, addresses 15,000 American Muslims in Chicago

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An article from Robert Fisk of the Independent gives pause today:

'America's aggression is fuelling extremism', says former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, one of Iran's most principled leaders and one who the U.S. had hoped to deal with when he was elected as a reformer President. In a Chicago hotel, Khatami addressed over 15,000 American Muslims.

When he spoke of "the vast and all-encompassing presence of powers who express concern for the world but implement policies aimed at devouring the world," there was a sense of shock among his audience. They had not expected such an epic denunciation of US hegemony from a divine known for his compassion rather than his anger.

Speaking of the policies of the Bush Administration and the neocons, Khatami said, "policies that are the outcome of a point of view, that despite having no status in the US public arena as far as numbers are concerned, uses decisive lobby groups and influential centres to utilise the entirety of America's power and wealth to promote its own interest and to implant policies outside US borders that have no resemblance to the spirit of Anglo-American civilisation and the aspirations of its Founding Fathers or its constitution, causing crisis after crisis in our world."

Read the entire article by Robert Fisk here.