ILDC Executive Director spoke on September 20th 2007 at a workshop on Islamophobia and pluralism organized by the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Entitled Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism, the Workshop hosted leading scholars and researchers, heads of national and international organizations, newspaper editors, and government officials to discuss the content, causes and consequences of Islamophobia.

Islamophobia, participants stressed, has important consequences for the relationship between the Western and the Muslim worlds. It reinforces relations of mistrust, enmity and hostility between Muslims and non-Muslims. Nihad Awad and Juan Cole pointed to the war on Iraq as a profound example of what Islamphobia can lead to. Parvez Ahmed, among others, discussed the distortionary effects Islamophobia has on civil rights and civic life.

Louay Safi articulated that Islamophobia was not a problem of a few bigoted individuals—instead it was a political and social problem, precisely because the attitudes of a few bigots were determining the relationship between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in the West and elsewhere. Jasser Auda, Phillip Lewis, Daniel Madigan, and Louay Safi, among others, indicated that Islamophobia not only normalizes prejudice, discrimination and violence towards Muslims, it also, silences legitimate criticism within the Muslim world and conflates legitimate anxiety in the West. Participants agreed that there are urgent moral and pragmatic imperatives to actively engage in curbing and eradicating Islamophobia so that we can build a safe and secure world and a global society “constituted by equals and working towards a common good.”

Cooperation and active efforts to build and mobilize networks of anti-Islamophobia activists, scholars, and policy-makers was of paramount importance, according to the OIC Secretary General Kamal  Ihsanoglu. The OIC was seen to potentially have an especially influential role in this aspect. The discussants also emphasized the importance of creating spaces for dialogue that would bridge divides between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, with a special emphasis on all interfaith activities (Jocelyn Cesari, Zahid Bukhari). Participants underscored the importance of providing financial and other resources to grassroots efforts: these included creation of programs that built (youth) leadership in Muslim communities as well as non-Muslim communities (Phillip Lewis, Omür Orhun).

Education was consistently marked as an area of where work needed to be done to curb Islamophobia: educational efforts needed to go beyond religious education curricula and instead be integrated into all aspects of the curricula, with a special emphasis on history. Educating the media is also important (Ibrahim Karin): production of media guides for journalists so that responsible journalism could be practiced in reporting on Muslims and Islam. When educating non-Muslims about Islamophobia, the strategy of making comparisons with other forms of discriminations, rather than talk about Islam per se, is more likely to be fruitful (Peter Gottschalk). Participants agreed that discussion on Islamophobia, in all its forms, needs to be taken to policy makers directly if their attitudes and actions are to change.

Therefore encouraging responsible (and sanctioning against irresponsible) rhetoric by politicians was of crucial importance. Finally, Muslims themselves need to be educated on what constitutes as Islamophobia and how to practice critical engagement in their societies.