International media bombard Muslim world with negative images daily: Sultan Nazrin

IPOH: The international media bombard the Muslim world daily with negative images of its youths, whether as the perpetrators of violence, jihadists, warriors and terrorists or even fleeing from bombed cities.
The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah (pix) said Islamophobia was a very real concern for many Muslim youths growing up in the West who were experiencing growing and increasingly open hostility.
"These dynamics present a serious challenge for our young generation in the West, Muslim-minority countries and for those in the Middle East at the heart of the conflicts.
"Such misperceptions serve the political agendas of some right-wing politicians in the West who generate support by stirring up nationalistic fears," Sultan Nazrin said in his keynote address when opening the 3rd World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilisation (WCIT) 2016, here, today.
The WCIT 2016 with the theme 'Future World', held from today until Thursday, is a biennial conference addressing contemporary issues and had been organised by Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah (USAS) since 2012 with participants coming from more than 15 countries.
Sultan Nazrin noted that Muslim immigrant populations living in the West, whether recent refugees or second-generation nationals were often portrayed as unemployed, marginalised and disaffected, and susceptible to recruitment by terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
He said greater coordination between Muslim countries would enable everybody to play a more effective role in responding to the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Sultan praised the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for making progress in developing better communication and greater collaboration between Muslim countries.
"The bridge between the Muslim world and the West can ultimately only be built through resolution of these difficult conflicts.
"However intractable these appear, greater efforts must be made on both sides to seek more effective dialogues and to address the root causes," the Sultan said. — Bernama