Islamophobia Must Be Stopped, Kofi Annan Says

December 7, 2004

Source: UN News Service

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12742&Cr=islam&Cr1

On December 7, 2004 UN News Service reported, "Seeing Islam as a monolith, distorting its tenets and equating Arabs with the entire Islamic world are among the many practices that now make up the prejudice called Islamophobia and must be stopped, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said today. 'Islam's tenets are frequently distorted and taken out of context, with particular acts or practices being taken to represent or to symbolize a rich and complex faith,' he said in an address entitled 'Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding,' part of a UN-sponsored series on 'Unlearning Intolerance.' 'Some claim that Islam is incompatible with democracy, or irrevocably hostile to modernity and the rights of women. And in too many circles, disparaging remarks about Muslims are allowed to pass without censure, with the result that prejudice acquires a veneer of acceptability.'"