Terrorists oppose Western civilization: Downer

Terrorists oppose Western civilization: Downer

Associated Press, Ottawa

Terrorism is a threat in every country, as shown by the deadly attack in Bali, Indonesia, Australia's foreign minister said Monday during a visit to Canada.

"Both Canadians and Australians have to understand that a lot of these terrorist operations are directed not just against the United States but against what we might broadly describe - particularly in Canada and Australia - as our civilization," Alexander Downer said after meeting with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.

Downer was in Canada for two days for what is called the Canada-Australia Dialogue, described as the first in a series of meetings focusing on bilateral issues. He left Ottawa later Monday.

An Oct. 12 bomb blast that tore apart a nightclub in Bali targeted foreign tourists - mostly Australians - and has been attributed to Islamic extremists.

Downer said the terrorists in Bali, like those who engineered the attacks in the United States of Sept. 11, are "motivated by their subversion of Islam, their perversion of Islamic beliefs."

"What they want to do is drive so-called Western influence out of the Islamic world and try to establish sharia, or fundamentalist Taliban-style states or transnational organizations," he said.

"Whether you're a Canadian or whether you're an Australian or whether you're an American, you're part of the so-called West," he said. "There are risks that these people will use us as targets. We just have to be alive and awake to that."