Press-centre / Press about us

Amr Musa chairman of Arab Liga.

Cordoba, Spain — Europe's first major conference on Islamophobia wrapped up on Wednesday, October 10, blaming the alarming intolerance and discrimination against Muslim minorities on education and the media.

"Education is a fundamental instrument in the prevention and treatment of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told the closing session, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The two-day conference was organized in city of Cordoba by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention in Europe, North America and Central Asia.

The gathering seeks to address discrimination against Muslim minorities across Europe.

Nearly 300 representatives from NGOs and delegations from the 56 nations that make up the OSCE participated in the event.

The Association ‘Alraid’ representant was Shadi Othman the chairman of Islamic Cultural Center of Kharkow.

"The essential responsibility to face up to acts of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims belongs to participating states," said Moratinos, whose county holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE.

"No international event or political question can justify intolerance and discrimination, including that which is directed at Muslims."

A recent report by the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia said Muslim minorities in Europe face deep-seated discrimination in jobs, education and housing in addition to myriad barriers that give rise to feelings of hopelessness and exclusion.

In a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on September 14, UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Intolerance Doudou Diene warned that Islamophobia has been on the rise since the 9/11 attacks.

Media

Experts said the phenomenon was taking alarming dimensions, urging governments to do more to protect Europe's Muslims from discrimination.

"The situation is very serious," said Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred.

"Islamophobia is a rising phenomena," agreed Jasser Auda of Britain's Forum Against Racism and Islamophobia, which is made up of representatives of the British Muslim community.

"It is good to attract the attention of governments on the issue, to increase their level of awareness," said Aydin Suer, the spokesman for Femyso, a confederation of Muslim youth groups from 22 European nations.

"The problems are complex, the solutions themselves are complex."

Several conference participants accused the media of fueling the anti-Muslim sentiments.

"The average Muslim, who is a good neighbor, is totally absent from the media," said Kees Brants, a professor of communications at the University of Amsterdam.

He said that negative portrayal of Islam and Muslims has become the norm in the media since the 9/11 attacks.

Common media stereotypes are that of the "fanatical and violent Muslim" or of "mosques transformed into places of conspiracies," added the expert.

A recent British study accused the media and film industry of perpetuating Islamophobia and prejudice by demonizing Muslims and Arabs as violent, dangerous and threatening people.

Famed US academic Stephen Schwartz had also criticized the Western media for failing to meet the challenge of reporting on Islam after 9/11.

Source IslamOnline.net

All news

Comment       Subject: Name: E-Mail: