Vuslat, the floor is yours. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. President obama in his latest speech at the United Nations said, until basic questions are answered about how communities coexist, the embers of extremism will continue to person, countless human beings will suffer and the world is too small for us to build a wall and prevent it from affecting our own societies. Yes, he is correct. The world is too small. And the peoples destinies are more interrelated to each other than it has ever been before. A threat here at this place in the world is not only affecting these people, this play, but the entire globe. And weve seen this in global finance. Weve seen this in public health. Weve seen this also in many other cases. But we are rooecently experiencg it in refugee crisis and terrorism. The wall that obama is referring to has appeared in our lives recently when the European Countries started talking about build up a wall to keep the threat of refugees away from them. This is going to take its play in the history as the most disgraceful human act. Unfortunately, terrorist organizations like isis, al qaeda and so forth are attacking to the world with terrorism, invoking the name of islam. This is a very big phenomena, and its a very tragic issue for both muslims and nonmuslims. Just to make it clear, unfortunately, the muslims that are that have been targeted to isis terrorism is much many more than the combination of christians and jews. So its a global problem, not only the problem of the western world. I want to emphasize this. Well, what is this doing . This is, of course, promoting the islamo phobic sentiments within the western world. And it also unfortunately in return is fueling the antiwestern sentiments within the muslim countries. It is really feeding each other both diseases are feeding each other and causing a bigger and bigger problem for the world. It is also giving islamophobia is also giving a good propaganda tool to the hands of the terrorists who are trying to recruit the muslim youth that are oppressed, that are isolated and that are not able to be recognized. So this is another education of isl islamophob islamophobia. Its unfortunately alienating the muslims, the people with the muslim faith, and they are not being i shouldnt say they are not, but theres a possibility they would not be so engaged with being a good ally in acting against terrorism. So these are all possible outcomes of islamophobia, but how do we deal with it . What is islamophobia . It stems from phobia, which is a fear of the unknown, right . If we put it so simply, then the answer is very simple. Lets get rid of the phobia. So, which is lets get to know each other. Lets try to find ways where we can engage in good conversations so that we can build a world where we can coexist together. Better conversations is important. I think its crucial into getting to know each other because unfortunately, we forgot having good conversations. When i say good conversations, i first mean good listening, which is actively listening, which is listening with the intention of understanding the other side. Acknowledging and recognizing the other side. And its also good talking. Talking not only to get your word across and to start a monologue but also to invite in a conversation and a dialogue where you can search for answers for solutions of the problem. I think media can be a big a bi facilitator in this, and i think media has a huge role in creating a language where the world can Start Talking to each other rather than everybody engaging in a monologue. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech are fundamental human rights. They are enlightenment and progress, and freedom of speech is the backbone of democracy. But it should not be exercised at the cost of attacking ones dignity. It should not be exercised at the cost of attacking ones faith either, because you know what . Dignity is also a human right. I think, for example, when we talk about especially in the term of how do we cover islam and what do we say and dont say, we most all the time find ourselves in the conversation of so muslims dont christians dont get offended with this, and how come the muslims do . Because they are did, they are different faiths. Why dont we ask questions like, so what does it make you feel . What is it that you really get offended so we can move beyond the conversation and take the topic forward to find a conclusion. Another very important freedom is the freedom to ask questions. As a publisher, i truly very much appreciate this, and its a treasure and we should vigorously defend it. But when we ask questions, do we always have to ask a question to verify the other side our own presumptio presumptions. Do we have to ask to get our own beliefs and judgments predefined, and i think no, i think we in journalism, we can ask questions so the other side is heard and can express themselves better, and so that the other side is can talk fearlessly in the field of respect and grace. We also in that the media defend freedom of speech for all costs. I think we should also start defending the right to be heard for everybody. Because if one is not heard, anger starts building up in there, and that anger very a lot of the time can turn into radicalization and extremes. This is also an important an important aspect, and we should watch out when we are creating a new language. While these might seem theoretical, because we know that the practical life, media stuff, we are facing a very tough competition. We run after best ratings, best page views and good circulation, every minute, every day, every day, and we know the best ratings go to extreme rhetorics, and we know that the loud voices and the radical voices get the best attention, so what do we do . I propose that we put these onsite and we remember our moral obligation of our profession to society. We could choose to be as media, to be a catalogue of hatred and fear and in a polarized world its also pushing media to act in such a way, but we can also choose to be a channel of wisdom, of reason, and of respect, and i think depending on which one we choose is going to have big consequences on the global peace and harmony. This morning, here on the stage, i invite all of my media colleagues to stop for one minute and think, are we really going to follow this madness of constant stimulation of fear . Or are we going to promise our children for a life that is safer, because this fear is threatening all of our safety. I think we can do this if we join forces for a better conversation for around different points like islamophobia, and islamophobia is a very difficult topic and today i hope this panel is going to be the first panel that is going to kick off the good conversation about islamophobia. Theres a beautiful, and it goes it goes listen closely to all voices, and choose the best of it. Thank you very much for listening, and contributing. This gives me more of a view of everyone. So vuslat, thank you for those observations and thank you for helping to make this happen. Let me now welcome our panel. Joining us today, and i will start here at the end is my good friend, the dean of the paul knit sau school of advanced international studies, and he has experience in the Public Sector and a special adviser to the president in back stan, and hes a great intrapreneurs in this town. And the host of the zainab salbi, and i have got Karen Armstrong next on my list and i will go to you and come back to you, minister, and she is well known for her exceptional work, writing, is that right . I have very few good words to say for the British Empire, so its rather an embarrassment. A reluctant office of the British Empire. [ laughter ] well known for her work, and she has been a driver of International Action against extremism through forging International Enter cultural and enter religious dialogue. She was instrumental in the creation for a charter of compassion, a document in which urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion. Finally, and by no means least, the minister is a former minister of state in the Turkish Council of ministers, and the grand National Assembly of turkey, and also a well known scholar on philosophy and religion, so thank you all for being here. So this is a crucial topic with fast implications for domestic as well as Foreign Policy, divides countries, and it divides societies, and divides communities, but it also has the power to bring them together, so i want to delve into the discussion. In the past years, particularly in the past months we watched europe struggle under the weight of refugees, and politicians of both sides of the atlantic caps on the number of refugees, and in the u. S. , our election is by and large provided more hate than light on the subject, so we want to provide light today. Against this back drop, i would like our experts to talk about how we can walk the line between security concerns and racism that may, in fact, create a spirit of exclusion, and subsequent homegrown radicalization. Theres a lot at stake here. Im looking to my aides here, because i think we have got a quick film that we are going to show, if its not okay, its going to come a little later then. What we are going to try and do is frame the subject, what is islamophobia, and what are the sources of it and where is it taking place and what way is it taking place, and then talk a little bit about the stakes and finally try to outline outline some solutions. I think we particularly want to focus in this conversation on the solutions. This is also interactive in the sense that you have our twitter hash tag, and you can give us your ideas and responses to what we have said, and we will srl a q a period as well and what you dont get in and can send in in terms of ideas when it comes to the potential solutions. Karen is the reluctant office of the British Empire and maybe you can lay the ground work for us to understand the extend of the islamophobia and its implications. You said in the past, before 1700, and this is a quote, taking religion out of politics would be like extracting gin from gin and tonic, and even though some of us think we may want to go on a 12step program against islamophobia, you have written on the religious persecution, so give us an idea of where we are now. It seems we have moved. Didnt seem long about the berlin wall being torn down and we were cheering, and now theres talk of a wall being built and people are cheering. Islamophobia, what is it . Its a phobia, and its an irrational fear and not on reason and a based on a gut feeling and its one of those indications of people who are struggling in all kinds of fields of life, with globalization, the fact we cannot live with one another, and we are profoundly connected to one another, and when markets fall in one part of the world they drop all over the world, and the more global we are and the more people in both religious and political terms are retreating into denominational or national ghett ghettos. Throughout history im a historian, and i often try to understand things by seeing how they have been in the past, and there have been these explosions of hatred of certain groups, and just think of the crusade, for example, and what is interesting is that these phobias often project on to a socalled enemy buried worries about ones own position. The crusade solute slaughtered muslims with great joy and brought the christian violence on to the other side, on to their enemies, and i think that there was quite a lot of that today. I know we will talk about Foreign Policy, and thats a hugely important issue. I would just like to mention some of the British Foreign policy, and i mentioned the British Empire, and we bear a lot of the responsibility for a lot of the problems today, and we go back to paris in january, and all the leaders marching together, shoulder to shoulder and linking arms for freedom of expression, when very many of those leaders, including my own prime minister, david cameron, headed countries that had four decades, and in the case of britain for over a century, aggressively supported regimes and muslim majority countries that denied their people any freedom of expression, and a sort of denial of that. I think we have got to look at this kind of denial, this kind of unhealthy irrational fear because its not something we can just sort out by telling people to pull themselves together and look at the facts. Since you mentioned the Foreign Policy, maybe you can step in here because obviously this this is enter woven with 9 11, inner woven with various policies that have been made, and its a little surprising islamophobia is as high as it is, and it was 40 after 9 11 in terms of the feelings around muslims in the United States, and 60 or more now, and you would think under a president that has been much more communetive, that wouldnt it be that way, and i wonder if you could give us a feeling of your perspective as a Foreign Policy practitioner, how do you look at the phenomena of islamophobia. Well, building on also what karen was saying, islamophobia, even the term itself bursts on the stage right after 9 11, and i think at that point we could say it was largely an issue external to the United States, and what is different now is islamophobia in a way was a policy deliberately pushed from the top of the u. S. Administration, and it was an idea that was part and parcel of the United States administrations managing the middle east relations, and the term fascism was coined and used by george bush until he was dissuaded from doing it, and 9 11 could have been construed as a challenge to u. S. Policy in the middle east as a way of sidestepping, quit examining the u. S. Policy, and islamophobia was a way of passing the blame back to muslims, and promoting terrorism rather than put u. S. Foreign policy on trial for creating some of the problems, and in fact, the big disconnect was in the muslim world, the understand was it was about u. S. Policy and the idea in the usa was it was about islam. And i would say top town in making islamophobia as the center of focus of understanding what happened after 9 11 very quickly found traction in the ae van kul community in the United States, and i say that deliberately, because the evangelical community has clear perceptions within its own understanding of faith and the end of times they directly valve islam as a competitor, and in various parts of the world, islam is the main competitor so they have a sense that islam is the enemy and even among the evangelicals, islam was not a problem inside the United States, it was a problem that was outside the United States and was in the form of terrorism or competition was threatening the United States. I would say if you looked at president obamas cairo speech, arabs and muslims criticized that on many levels but with great success, he officially in cairo, without saying so abandoned islamophobia as official american policy. Thats a powerful statement. Thats the significance of the cairo speech. He said, this is about u. S. Policy and i will put one u. S. Policy on the table which is the peace process, and i am not going to do much about it but i will acknowledge that the problem has to do with u. S. Foreign policy, and as president of the United States, as the head of the u. S. Government i will no longer follow this track. Throughout we can see this is an administration in which the president doesnt want to use the term islamic terrorism, and the second of state it has engaged the muslim world in varieties of ways, and yet, as you say, we were back to where we were, and thats because its no longer a Foreign Policy issue, and this is now about other things that are happening in europe and the United States, so its about the rise of p populism, and immigration is about two things, numbers and assimilation, and muslims are a problem on both fronts. Their numbers are growing particularly in europe so that puts them on the radar, and they do not assimilate, or it appears they dont assimilate or are slow to assimilate, so the debate of the summer is really about assimilation. So you know, theres a shift here, and this is not going to go away if isis is defeated. Its not going to go away with u. S. Foreign policy. This is not morphed into the whole dynamic of what is happening to American Society itself to populists and to anger at outsiders, and it has to do with what is happening in europe. Of course, you know, refugees in syria, and beheadings in iraq, those things, bombs going off in paris, brussels, and merely add fuel to the fire, but i think the challenge for muslims is now much, much bigger, because this is not about defending activities that are happening over there, and its about really defending their place in American Society or the European Society going forward. The thing that is interesting, there has been a poll that showed roughly half of u. S. Muslims, so 48 , said their own religious leaders have not done these are u. S. Muslims have not done enough to speak out against extremists, and is this part of it . I think this idea that Muslim Leaders have to speak about i find that actually offensive, and the one point of having heard Everything Else that donald trump has said all along that i found particularly offensive is what he said in the last debate that the burden of finding out who is planting a bomb rests on muslims. This is essentially collective guilt, all muslims are guilty unless proven innocent and the burden is on them to prove themselves innocent, and the fact that somehow if a preacher somewhere says something, it sort of you count how many preachers have said something, and it doesnt count how many have give n tpabg was. Theres one important problem, and muslims are unique in migrant communities is that we are not in control of those that interpret our faith. They are sitting in cairo and they have different world views and priorities. But what a lot of muslims s