varnam

In Longitudes and Attitudes, Tom Friedman categorizes the Sept 11 hijackers into two classes, Europeans and Saudis. The Europeans are people like Mohammed Atta, who got indoctrinated in radical Islam after moving to Europe. The European attitude was that, do whatever crazy things you want, so long as it is not against us. The Saudis are those hijackers who provided the muscle power.

Now it comes as a surprise that such a liberal Europe has snubbed a delegation of Pakistani MPs with the comment that the delegation did not meet, "ideals of democracy, equality and human rights".

British Labour MEP, Neena Gill, leader of the EU parliament's South Asia inter-parliamentary committee, said: "The European Parliament espouses the ideals of democracy, equality and human rights.

"While we have members who represent all shades of the political spectrum, we are all working within the framework of a fully functioning democracy.

"We cannot condone therefore individuals who place themselves outside these parameters, for they represent everything we stand against." [EU snub for hardline Pakistan MP]

Senator Maulana Sami ul-Haq, the person in question runs a seminary which graduates students to fight enemies of their religion and supports the Taleban and Osama bin Laden.