Speakers for interfaith cultural exchanges to project Islam’s true image

Islamabad: Speakers at a webinar have underlined the need for use of interfaith cultural exchanges and employment of soft power tools abroad to showcase the true image of Islam as a religion of peace and accommodation.

Besides, they urged the Muslim migrants with international civil society organisations to play their due role in that regard, said a press release. They were addressing a webinar titled Rising Islamophobia & the Otherisation of Muslims: Root Causes and Possible Remedies’ here organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

Dr Mehmet urged the need to understand the socio-political angularities and the role of media in emphasizing the negative stereotypes about Muslims. According to him the attitude of Muslims in alien societies also needs to be moderated as their lack of cultural integration also alienates the people from host countries.

Dr Amina Yaqeen held forth on the semiotics of Islamophobia highlighting the need to separate identity politics from religious markers of identity. She quoted examples of anti-women cultural practices which were mistakenly conflated with Islamic radicalism. She also mentioned intergenerational gap, class background and frustration as contributory factors towards acts of violence by Muslim youth in United Kingdom.

Dr Daniels mentioned the causes of structural racism that need to be understood in order to counter Islamophobia. He said the world was witnessing a post clash of the civilisation society and there was need to employ intellectual tools of persuasion and advocacy to counter the negativity associated with the Muslims'' image in the West.

All panelists recommended a combination of epistemic and behavioral tools for Muslim diaspora in West to moderate the thinking of the silent majority that was fed on false narratives and negative stereotypes by far right extremists in Western societies.

The discourse was rounded off by IPRI Acting President Brig (r) Raashid Wali Janjua by giving a tour d’ horizon of the anti-Muslim themes and acts in the West and the need for a concerted effort on part of Muslim countries’ governments and the diaspora to counter the well-organised campaigns of Islamophobia in the western world.