This post is authored for PoliGazette by Robert Ellis. As usual, guests posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of PoliGazette or any of its authors.

Three weeks ago Stephen Kinzer claimed in The Guardian that NATO had “dissed” the Muslim world by nominating Danish PM Rasmussen as its new secretary-general. But the boot is on the other foot.

The occasion was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the NATO alliance in 1949. The preamble to the treaty declares that the parties are “determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law”. In other words, the alliance was founded to defend the values on which our Western civilisation is based.| MORE ›

UPDATE: Rasmussen did basically apologize in his speech today, although it was not the “open apology” Turkish officials hoped for.

Read our entire report here. Here is what Rasmussen said:

“I respect Islam as one of the world’s major religions as well as its religious symbols,” Rasmussen said during a panel discussion at a conference in Istanbul.| MORE ›