Remarks by Ms. Nihal Saad,
Director for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
at the Coordination Meeting on Combating anti-Muslim Hatred
Council of Europe, Strasbourg – 14-15 March 2024
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear colleagues,
I thank the Council of Europe and the European Commission for initiating this important meeting.
Let me start by extending my warm wishes to Muslim colleagues observing the Holy month of Ramadan. Ramdan Kareem.
Tomorrow, 15 March, Member States will convene in a High-Level event organized by the OIC to observe the 2nd International Day to Combat Islamophobia, a keystone step towards addressing and combating Islamophobia.
For starters, the term Islamophobia headlined the title of the UN General Assembly Resolution 76/254.
This brings me to the debate around using the term Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hate.
The persistent manifestations of hatred, stigmatization and structural discrimination, social and economic exclusion, violent hostility and fear towards Muslims and Islam serve as a basis to label these patterns as a form of Islamophobia.
Addressing religious intolerance and bigotry such as Islamophobia does not and should not be conflated with freedom of expression, which is a fundamental human right.
Equally important is that Islamophobia should not be conflated with criticism of certain practices or policies that are wrongfully disguising behind the cloak of Islam – such as discriminatory laws or regulations against women or non-Muslims.
The path to building just, inclusive and cohesive societies begins with full respect for all human rights for all individuals, without distinction.
Racism, xenophobia , religious intolerance such as Islamophobia, antisemitism , persecution of minority Christians and all forms of discrimination based on religion, belief, ethnicity, gender or culture are all violations of the Universal of Declaration of Human Rights , Human Rights law and the UN Charter which starts with “we the peoples” and “to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours” – in instances where individuals or groups face humiliation and discrimination.
It is important to note that these patterns are to be taken within the context of broad and rampant racism, populist discourse and other forms of hatred and intolerance.
To be clear, when any form of religious bigotry such as Islamophobia exists in a society, other forms of racism and discrimination will most likely emerge in that society , whether it is a democratic or a totalitarian one.
Distinguished delegates,
Over the past few months and particularly within the context of the grave situation in the Middle East, we witnessed an alarming rise in attacks on places of worship, desecration and contempt of holy books and sacred symbols, harassment and attacks on line and off line.
Being aware of the frequent debate around the “desecration” of religious books and symbols and whether in and of itself is or isn’t an act of incitement. Context is vital when assessing whether a particular expression reached the prohibited threshold under article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and ignoring that blanket bans like anti-blasphemy or religious defamation laws paved the way for mass censorship and the silencing of legitimate expression and dissent. Such bans often targeted people from minority religions or beliefs whose very existence may challenge the convictions of majority religious communities or highlight the instrumentalization of religion by those in power.
The danger, quite often, is that stigmatization and dehumanization against specific faith communities is politically motivated.
Religion is weaponized and Hate is normalized by some political leaders and prominent personalities in the realm of sports, music, arts and religion.
In this context, the prevalence of impunity is deeply concerning.
These vile patterns repudiate all that we are and all that we do as United Nations and are contrary to the raison d’etre of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations which was created to address the root causes of polarization, racism and xenophobia, among other objectives.
These toxic iterations should be unequivocally condemned.
This is what the High Representative for UNAOC has consistently done. Speaking out against this kind of discourse.
We chose soft power tools to address these phenomena.
Changing hearts and minds.
We recognized 19 years ago the value of promoting intercultural and interreligious dialogue, mutual respect and embracing diversity as richness not as a threat.
We therefore carefully chose our motto — “Many cultures…One Humanity”.
But words are not enough.
Addressing racism and discrimination based on religion, belief, ethnicity, gender or culture is not a one-time exercise.
Combatting such phenomena demands action every day.
So we built cross-cutting programs and initiatives focusing on Youth, education, media, migration and women. Our work is in-line with the numerous UN General Assembly resolutions and UN policy guidelines.
On the ground, we financially supported and mentored youth-led organizations and grassroots which promote diversity and peaceful coexistence, from Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa to South East Asia, Europe, MENA, the US and Latin America.
Across our programmatic activities, we delivered tailored capacity-building workshops to develop the communities’ peace-building and mediation skills through the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
We developed peer-to-peer learning workshops between young religious leaders and social media actors
Another good example is the joint initiative that we launched with the North South Center of the Council of Europe and other partners in designing pedagogical tools fostering intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
Last but not least, created a global platform for dialogue bringing together state and non-state actors including a broad spectrum of religious leaders and faith communities to exchange views and good practices in addressing xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech.
UNAOC 10th Global Forum in Lisbon in November 2024 could be a viable platform for exchanging views on these themes.
I thank you and look forward to the panel discussions.
Our 10th global forum in Lisbon in November 2024 could be a viable platform to host the next coordination meeting on that topic.
I thank you and I look forward to the panel discussions.