Islamophobia threat to world peace: UN expert

Geneva: A UN expert on racism yesterday branded the defamation of religions - in particular critical portrayals of Islam in the West - a threat to world peace.

"Islamophobia today is the most serious form of religious defamation," Doudou Diene told the UN Human Rights Council, which is currently holding a three-week session in Geneva.

Diene cited a caricature of the Prophet in a Swedish newspaper, a protest by far-right groups in Belgium on Tuesday against the "Islamisation of Europe", and campaigns against the construction of mosques in Germany and Switzerland as evidence of an "ever increasing trend" toward anti-Islamic actions in Europe.

"We see the initiatives and activities of many groups and organisations which are working hard to bring about a war of civilizations," he said, adding that right-wing groups were trying to equate Islam with violence and terrorism.

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who was appointed as an independent UN expert on racism in 2002, was presenting a report on defamation of religions to the 47-member council. The report also includes sections on anti-Semitism and other forms of religious or racial persecution around the world.

African and Islamic countries welcomed the report and called for moves to draft an international treaty that would compel states to act against any form of defamation of religion.