Confronting Islamophobia.

• Position: Unlearning Intolerance

The "Unlearning Intolerance" seminar series resumed on 7 December 2004 at UN Headquarters in New York. The groundbreaking series, organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), aims to raise awareness by examining manifestations of intolerance and exploring ways to promote mutual respect and understanding among different cultures. Attended by more than 600 participants, the seminar devoted to "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding" is the first of its kind held at the United Nations. An accompanying exhibit entitled "Islam", by Iranian photographer Abbas, former President of the Magnum photographers' cooperative, was also launched that day. The first seminar in the series on "Confronting Anti-Semitism" took place on 21 June, with Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel as the keynote speaker (see UN Chronicle, issue 2, 2004).

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In his welcoming remarks, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor, who moderated the day-long seminar, noted that "no one is born intolerant, only taught to be so". In his opening address (see page 4), Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlined a multi-dimensional strategy for effectively combating Islamophobia: limiting the influence of hate media, embracing laws, education, leadership, integration, interfaith dialogue, policy awareness and combating violence carried out in the name of religion.

Starting his keynote speech by saying that it was "very easy to learn intolerance and unlearn tolerance, but difficult to unlearn intolerance", Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, traced the root causes of Islamophobia. Noting that it referred back to the rise of Islam, he stated that the Christian West's fear of Islam was both religious and political, adding that this dark reservoir of historical consciousness had been resurrected in the past decade, leading to new waves of fear and hatred.

Mr. Nasr said four "myths" about Islamophobia needed to be dispelled. The first was that Islam was a monolithic whole--a presumption, often found in the Western media, that disregarded the various schools of Islamic thought. Another illusion was that Islam wanted to rule over the Western world, he said. The Islamic world was not anti-Western in itself because, according to surveys, some 70 per cent of adolescents in Islamic countries were interested in studying in the West. Similarly, it was...