Embassy Row

Meeting with Muslims

American Muslims offered condolences to British Ambassador David Manning and called the London bombings "barbaric crimes."

Mr. Manning told them the bombings should not be linked to Islam, which he described as a religion of "peace, reconciliation and tolerance."

Representatives of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations met with Mr. Manning on Friday at the British Embassy.

CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed signed the book of condolences and called the attacks "barbaric crimes that can never be justified of excused."

Diplomatic traffic

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Today

• Tarik Samarah, a Bosnian photographer whose pictures of Srebrenica, the scene of a Serbian massacre 10 years ago, will be displayed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum beginning at 2 p.m.

Tomorrow

• Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, who meets with President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and addresses the business council of the United States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On Wednesday, he meets Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Mr. Lee is accompanied by Foreign Minister George Yeo, Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean and Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

• Jorge Taiana, deputy minister for foreign affairs of Argentina. He addresses the Inter-American Dialogue on preparations for the Summit of the Americas in Argentina in November.

Wednesday

• Carlos Heredia, an adviser to the governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan and a former member of the Mexican Congress. He addresses the Inter-American Dialogue about next year's presidential election in Mexico.

• Abdoulie Janneh, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and director of the U.N. Development Program's Regional Bureau for Africa, who discusses the status of democracy in Africa at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

• Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information society and media, who addresses invited guests of the European Union's Washington office.

• Sakena Yacoobi, president of the Afghan Institute of Learning; Mohammad Nasib, director of the Welfare Association for Development of Afghanistan; and Sarwar Hussaini, chairman of the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan. They receive the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy at 3:30 p.m. in the Dirksen Auditorium of the Senate Office Building.

Thursday

• Sardar Sikender Hayat Khan, leader of Azad Kashmir; Lars Rise, a member of the Norwegian Parliament; Riaz Khokhar, former foreign secretary of Pakistan; Sheikh Tajamul of the Ul Islam, Kashmir Media Service; Majid Tramboo of the Kashmir Center in Belgium; Nazir Shawl of the Kashmir Center in London; Ali S. Khan of the Kashmiri Scandinavian Council; K. Mitra Chenoy of India's Jawaharlal Nehru University; Gautam Navlakha of the Economic and Political Weekly in New Delhi; and Hameeda Banu of Kashmir University. They attend the Fifth International Kashmir Peace Conference, beginning at 8 a.m. in the Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building.

• Bijan Khajehpour of Atieh Bahar Consulting of Tehran, who addresses the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Friday

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has a private schedule over the weekend and meets with President Bush and congressional leaders next week.

• Gov. Francisco Paqui of the Ecuadorian province of Zamora Chinchipe and Fernando Navarro, former president of the Chamber of Commerce of Quito, Ecuador. They discuss the status of indigenous people with the Inter-American Dialogue.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.