JEDDAH, 2 May 2006 — A major international conference on how to check the rising tide of Islamophobia in Europe begins in London today. It is being described as the first of its kind on the issue.

The two-day conference, under the theme, “Challenging Stereotypes in Europe and the Islamic World: Working Together for Constructive Policies and Partnerships,” is being organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The conference brings together eminent scholars, politicians, journalists, nongovernmental organizations and diplomats from both the Western and Islamic worlds. In the aftermath of the cartoon controversy, OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who will inaugurate the conference today, repeatedly emphasized and even castigated the rising cases of Islamophobia and had called for major conferences to discuss the issue.

Many in the Muslim world believe the publication of the blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in a Danish newspaper in September last year, and an ensuing controversy earlier this year when other mostly European papers re-published the images, were a result of the deep resentment toward Islam harbored by a huge number of Westerners, especially Europeans.

Tackling Islamophobia was also one of the issues mentioned in the OIC’s 10-year action program to face the challenges of the 21st century, which was adopted at the Makkah Summit in December last year.

At the conference at London’s Wilton Park today, Kim Howells, the British secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, will give a speech titled “Relations Between Islam and the West: Perceptions and Realities.” His remarks will be followed by a panel discussion titled “What is the context in which Islamophobia occurs in Europe today and what is its cause?” featuring Christopher Allen, professor of sociology at the University of Birmingham, and Omur Orhun, personal representative of the chairman in the office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination Against Muslims.

The conference will discuss what governments in Muslim countries can do to counter negative images of Islam in Europe. This panel will be moderated by Kamal Abul Magd, deputy chairman of the Egyptian Council for Human Rights, and Akbar S. Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic Studies and professor of international relations at American University in Washington, D.C.

The last session of the first day will focus on the subject of what needs to be done to promote greater political dialogue between European and the 57 OIC member countries, on the one hand, and European governments and Muslim communities in Europe, on the other. This panel will be organized with the participation of Gabriel Matzner-Holzer, Austria’s ambassador in London, representing Austria as the current chairman of the European Union, in addition to representatives of Muslim states and Muslim communities in Europe.

Tomorrow, the conference will focus on legal frameworks for monitoring hate speech and discrimination against Muslims and other minorities. Asma Jehangir, special rapporteur of the United Nations on human rights for freedom of religion and belief, and Khurshid Drabu, constitutional adviser of the Muslim Council of Britain and honorary adviser to the British secretary of defense, will speak on this subject.

There will also be a session devoted to the media’s role in promulgating misconceptions of Islam in the West and anti-Western feelings in the Ummah. This panel will be moderated by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Wadah Khanfar, managing director of Al Jazeera satellite channel, and Jef McAllister, London bureau chief of Time Magazine.

The final session of the last day will be dedicated to discussing solutions to the vexing problems, with participation by Tariq Ramadan, visiting professor at Oxford University.