ARAB NEWS: ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Foreign ministers at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Kazakhstan on Tuesday will hear that anti-Muslim discrimination is on the rise, OIC sources said.
Prepared by the organization’s Islamophobia Observatory, sources said the report covers the period from May 2010 to April 2011 and catalogs intolerance and discrimination against Muslims and reveals a rise in Islamophobic discourse within both the public and political domains.
Based on the Observatory’s daily monitoring during the reporting period Western media, right-wing political movements and parties are taking advantage of people’s ignorance of true Islamic values to fuel Islamophobia in Europe and the United States.
The trend manifests itself in various forms, including direct attacks and desecration of Muslim places of worship, cemeteries and other Islamic centers along with a growing public perception that Muslims constitute a threat both to culture and well being of Western society and that Islamic religious symbols, particularly the head scarf and burqa, should be strictly limited or completely banned.
The frequency of such events was monitored by various surveys led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to speak out against the dangers of intolerance and the perils to religious freedom on the continent. » | Siraj Wahab | ARAB NEWS | Monday, July 27, 2011
