Recent riots in Europe and Asia stemming from controversial Danish newspaper cartoons about Muslims highlight the need for better worldwide education about cultures and languages, a Kansas University professor says.

That need for education was a major topic earlier this month at a conference Felix Moos attended and spoke at in Stockholm, Sweden. The intent of the conference of the International Association for Intelligence Education was to discuss the challenges law enforcement and intelligence analysts face in closing the cultural and language knowledge gap, said Moos, a professor of anthropology.

“There was a real recognition that we need more interchange of ideas on how to meet that challenge,” Moos said in a recent interview with the Journal-World.

Moos, who is the association’s vice chairman of international programs, said the conference was attended by members of various European law enforcement agencies. Police, such as border patrol officers, are especially in need of better cultural and language understanding, he said.

The newspaper cartoons, one depicting the prophet Mohammed with a turban resembling a bomb, grew out of a serious effort to find someone who could illustrate children’s books about Islam. No one could be found.

Felix Moos, professor of Anthropology at Kansas University, says ideological clashes would not be so severe if there were a better system of worldwide education about cultures and languages.

Upset Muslims in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe had to look to groups in Egypt and the Middle East to find support, which in turn led to the first protests and riots, Moos said.

“There is a clash of ideologies that Europeans see as an assault on the freedom of expression,” he said.

Lack of knowledge about different cultures is a growing problem in some European countries where there have been increasing immigrant populations, Moos said.

The U.S. also has its education problems. Moos said there were statistics that indicated less than 10 percent of American college students learned foreign languages.

The problem is exacerbated by the increasing cost of higher education in the U.S., Moos said. As the cost increases, it is becoming harder for people to afford that education.

“In Europe higher education is still relatively low-cost compared to the United States,” he said.

Yet Americans and many Europeans are alike in that they are less interested in learning about world affairs.

“People would rather watch sports than hear about the problems in Iraq,” Moos said.