The Runnymede Trust is
an independent think tank on ethnicity and cultural diversity. In November 1997 its Commission on British
Muslims and Islamophobia, under the chairmanship of Professor Gordon, produced
the report Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All. This was the first time that the
subject of Islamophobia had been comprehensively tackled in relation to a British Muslim
population. Sixty recommendations were put forward in the report targeted at government
departments, bodies and agencies, local and regional statutory bodies, and voluntary and
private bodies.
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC)
The EUMC was established by the European
Union as an independent body to contribute to combat racism, xenophobia and
anti-Semitism throughout Europe. It also works with the Council
of Europe and the United Nations. Following the
terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, the EUMC implemented a reporting system on
potential anti-Islamic reactions in the 15 EU Member States.
EUMAP is a program of the Open Society Institute that is monitoring human
rights and the rule of law in ten Central-Eastern European and five largest EU countries.
Its monitoring reports focus on minority protection, judicial capacity, and corruption and
anti-corruption policy. In 2002, EUMAP published its report Monitoring Minority Protection in
the EU: the Situation of Muslims in the UK.
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) was set up following a
decision of the Council of Europe in October 1993. It's
task is to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance at the level of
greater Europe and from the perspective of the protection of human rights.
(Parekh
Report) Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain
The Runnymede Trust set
up the Commission on the Future of
Multi-Ethnic Britain in January 1998, under the chairmanship of Bhikhu Parekh, to
"analyse the current state of multi-ethnic Britain and propose ways of countering
racial discrimination and disadvantage and making Britain a confident and vibrant
multicultural society at ease with its rich diversity."
Edward Said, Orientalism, Penguin (1995)
ISBN 0-14-023867-0
The highly acclaimed overview of Western
attitudes towards the East, that has become one of the canonical texts of cultural
studies. This book sets out to challenge established western views of the Orient and of
the Arab and Islamic world.
Edward Said writes: "Orientalism... is not an airy European
fantasy about the Orient, but a created body of theory and practice in which, for many
generations, there has been a considerable material investment. Continued investment made
Orientalism, as a system of knowledge about the Orient, an accepted grid for filtering
through knowledge through the Orient into Western consciousness."
Click here
to buy the paperback from Blackwells online
Edward Said, Covering Islam, Virgin (1997)
ISBN 0-099-59501-X
"From the Iranian hostage crisis through
the Gulf War and the World Trade Centre bombing, the West has been haunted by the spectre
called "Islam." As portrayed by the news media - and by a chorus of government,
academic and corporate experts - 'Islam' is synonymous with terrorism and religious
hysteria. At the same time, Islamic countries use 'Islam' to justify unrepresentative and
often repressive regimes.
"For this landmark work, one our foremost public thinkers examines
the origins and repercussions of the media's monolithic images of Islam. Combining
political commentary with literary criticism, Edward Said reveals the hidden assumptions
and distortions of facts that underlie even the most 'objective' coverage of the Islamic
world."
Click here
to buy the paperback from Blackwells online
Islam and the West: Testing the 'Clash of the
Civilisations' Thesis Pippa Norris (Harvard University) and Ronald Inglehart (University
of Michigan)
Abstract: In seeking to understand the root causes of the
events of 9/11, many accounts have turned to Samuel P. Huntington’s provocative and
controversial thesis of a ‘Clash of Civilizations’, arousing strong debate.
Evidence from the 1995-2001 waves of the World Values Study allows us, for the first time,
to examine an extensive body of empirical evidence relating to this debate.
Comparative analysis of the beliefs and values of Islamic and non-Islamic publics in 75
societies around the globe, confirms the first claim in Huntington’s thesis: culture
does matter, and indeed matters a lot, so that religious legacies leave a distinct imprint
on contemporary values. But Huntington is mistaken in assuming that the core clash between
the West and Islamic worlds concerns democracy. The evidence suggests striking
similarities in the political values held in these societies. It is true that Islamic
publics differ from Western publics concerning the role of religious leadership in
society, but this is not a simple dichotomous clash - many non-Islamic societies side with
the Islamic ones on this issue. Moreover the Huntington thesis fails to identify the most
basic cultural fault line between the West and Islam, which concerns the issues of gender
equality and sexual liberalization. The cultural gulf separating Islam from the West
involves Eros far more than Demos.
