'Strong communication network needed against Islamophobia': Turkish president

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) – Countries exposed to Islamophobia should establish a strong communication network in the international arena, the Turkish president said on Tuesday.

"Efforts to prevent Islamophobia, which play an important role in peace and security of the whole humanity, should be carried out through common sense mechanisms that will be set up," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the first International Media and Islamophobia Symposium held in the capital Ankara.

Erdogan stressed that Islamophobia is like cancer spreading rapidly in many parts of the world, especially in the West.

Instead of discussing the dimensions of the Western threat, those who fall under the influence of racist and discriminatory trends take the easy way out, he underlined.

The strategy of "demonizing Muslims" initiated by the American administration after the 9/11 attacks had a function that triggered the "virus of Islamophobia" that already existed in the cultural structure of many societies, he added.

The two-day symposium takes place at the ATO Congresium, an international convention and exhibition center in Ankara.

The symposium is being organized by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), Presidency of Religious Affairs, Erciyes University, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), and Ankara-based policy think-tank SETA Foundation.