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World Anti-Intolerance Forum Says No To Islamophobia
STOCKHOLM, Jan 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An international conference held here condemned both "Islamophobia" and anti-Semitism, both said to be sweeping different parts of the world, news agencies reported.
The decision signed by some 40 countries acknowledges for the first time anti-Muslim feelings particularly in Western countries, placing it on equal footing with racism, xenophobia and homophobia.
The countries vowed after the two-day meetings, concluded on Tuesday, to "tighten legislation and improve education on an international basis to fight racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination."
"All crimes against humanity, genocide, such as the Holocaust, and atrocities such as slavery and apartheid serve as grim reminders of where intolerance can lead if permitted to flourish," a 10-point declaration issued at the close of the meeting read.
The final document, which went through 12 drafts according to Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen, also stressed the need "to instill in our youth respect and appreciation for diversity."
The conference also addressed the challenge posed by the Internet - used by many neo-Nazis and other hate groups to disseminate information - but failed to put any muscle into its commitments, vowing only to encourage Internet providers to adhere to a voluntary code of conduct.
Islamophobia, hatred of Muslims, was first brought to the attention of a major global forum in 1994 when Jordan's then Crown Prince Hassan urged the U.N. General Assembly to stem anti-Muslim sentiment "and other manifestations of Islamophobia".
Some populations in traditionally Christian Europe have grown restless amid a growing influx of refugees and migrants, many of whom are Muslims.
Muslims have been forced into many controversies like that in France where Muslim girls are generally not allowed to wear the Muslim veil (hijab) to school. The case has shed light on the poor status of Muslims in many countries and Western fears that Muslims threaten the secular culture of Western countries.
Muslim intellectuals complain that Islam and its followers are being maligned in the West and that a systematic distortion of their image is no longer a minor irritant that can be ignored.
Some say that Western media, in particular, makes no distinction between Islam as a religion and political activism. To combat the tendency, some Muslims have suggested setting up a committee in order to monitor the phenomenon of Islamophobia, similar to committees in Europe and the U.S. monitoring anti-Semitism.
In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who attended the Stockholm conference, reiterated Tuesday his criticism of ever-tighter asylum policies imposed by some EU members.
"The impression is being created that because of popular resentment towards immigrants, some governments are taking approaches which are not in strict conformity with the 1951 Geneva convention [on the treatment of refugees] and with international law," Annan told reporters.
"As we move forward...Europe is going to need more and more immigrants to sustain its own economic development and I think it is right that we have the right approaches and the right policy and the right understanding of the role immigrants play in society," he said.
Annan was referring to demographic trends in the EU bloc where aging populations mean there will be less working age people to support the growing numbers of elderly in the future.
Sweden currently holds the six-month presidency of the European Union. The "Stockholm International Forum - Combating Intolerance" was a follow-up to an international Holocaust conference held in the Swedish capital last year.
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Tuesday the anti-discrimination gathering would be an annual affair.
The Stockholm declaration said young people all over the world should be instilled with respect and appreciation for diversity and the conviction that intolerance is an evil that must be fought.
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