UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The foreign ministers of Italy and Jordan are pushing an initiative to promote religious tolerance worldwide.
Italy's Giulio Terzi and Jordan's Nasser Judeh announcement Thursday came on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and a little over two weeks after an anti-Islam video that portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, a child molester and a fraud, sparked violent protests in Muslim countries.
Terzi said plans for the initiative were under way well before the video went public, and that the next step would be a conference in the coming months with representatives from governments, academia and international organizations.
Participants at a panel discussion on religious tolerance co-chaired by the two ministers on Thursday included U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay and UNESCO's director general, Irina Bokova.
