Islamphobia conference to start today

Jalil Afridi
Istanbul: An international conference titled Islamphobia; law and media is beginning today in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr. Bulent Arinc, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey is brain behind this seminar.
Islamophobia, which is a term used to express the groundless fear and intolerance of Islam and Muslims, has swept the world, becoming detrimental to international peace especially in recent years. The fear and hatred of Islam is the factor that not only exposes 1.6 billion Muslims to various negativities but also removes the tolerance which is a common ground for peaceful co-existence of different beliefs. As such, Islamophobia poses a big problem for believers of other religions as well.
Islamophobia is deemed as a human rights issue because of its implication of fear and intolerance culminating in hate speech and attitudes towards Muslims. Today all Muslims around the world call for recognition of Islamophobia as a hate crime and Islamophobic attitudes as human rights violations, highlighting the legal dimension of the issue. Therefore, existing relationship of Islamophobia to human rights and universal law appears to be an important subject requiring to be scrutinized.
The other important point is that the forms of media coverage on Muslims and Islam are in direct proportion to the spread of Islamophobia and the social problem that it tends to lead. Anti-Islamic propagandas made through images and language used by the visual media and print media play efficient role in creating the social repercussion of Islamophobia. Moreover, media, with its far reaching effects on public opinion, has the potential of playing effective role in fighting against Islamophobia as well as in spreading it.

Within this context, the Directorate General and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will co-hold an international conference under the auspices of Mr. Bulent ARINC, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, at Istanbul Grand Tarabya Hotel, in Istanbul, on 12-13 September, 2013 to discuss the Islamophobia with its media and law dimensions.