English Radio correspondnet Farzaneh Esmaili has interviewed Masoud Shajareh, chairman of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission on desecration of Islamic sanctities by western media and publications.  

Question: Masoud Shajareh, the scenario of desecration of Holy Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him and His Progeny) began by the European and western media in early 2006. Danish newspapers actually initiated the conspiracy, but other European and western media followed the same by repeating the ugly act and hurting the feelings of 1 billion Muslims. First of all, what do you think is the origin of all these conspiracies hatched against Islamic sanctities and the Holy Prophet of Islam?  

Answer: Well, they actually come from different sort of backgrounds and I think to some extent it all fuels from Islamophobia which has got its sources and motivation in different arenas. I mean for example there are some who hate religion but they can not attack other religions so they attack Islam as a means of undermining spirituality. There are those who actually are racist and they want to sort of exclude others as xenophobic ideas, and there are they use Islam as a means of promoting the xenophobia and racism as there are those who are actually politically motivated and indeed those who actually see Islam as a political threat to their hegemony and they use these avenues of attacking and undermining Islam and Islamic principles. There is a conversion of all these and what's really concerning is the issue of double-standards when it comes to the way that Islam is allowed, I think we should not say allowed, but rather is actually promoted to be targeted by the West and the media, the politicians and intellectuals unanimously and actually a variety of reasons I actually explained are united in promoting sort of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiment and deliberately provoking Muslims in a way that no other religious groups have ever been targeted, with the exception of Jews in 20's and 30's.  

Question: And what is the duty of religious scholars, seminaries and educational organizations and Muslims all around the world in condemning such conspiratorial moves. What are they supposed to do?  

Answer: First of all condemning is something that goes without saying. I think we should condemn not just attacks of this sort against such sacred aspects of Islam, but we also condemn it when other religions are actually targeted. We Muslims should be forefront of respecting other people's sacred beliefs and indeed Muslims have done so during the whole history and still continue to do so. But I think it goes beyond that, I think we need to understand and challenge this sort of barbaric targeting, for example you started your question with the issue of Denmark. Again in Denmark the same paper when was proposed to have similar cartoons regarding Christianity actually said that it was unacceptable and they never printed it. So why is it that suddenly it becomes legitimate to target Islam in this way? We've got a situation right across the world that if you attack people on the bases of race, then you are racist, if you attack the Jewish community, then you are anti-Semitic. If you attack any other group, you are xenophobic. But the minute that attacks in deliberative provocation is taken place against Islam, then the only voices we hear is freedom of speech. When we know that this is not freedom of speech, this is actually not even freedom of the abused, this is promotion of abuse and targeting a community which is being targeted on a daily basis. The level of Islamophobia is totally unacceptable.  

Question: Masoud Shajareh, don't you think that the issue of attacking Islam has been turned into an official and governmental policy. I mean it is just not a personal or accidental issue.  

Answer: As I was trying to say in the beginning, it really has got three sources, these attacks and abuses of Islam and one part it is political. I mean it's nothing new. I mean a member of the British Parliament stood up in the parliament, held up a Quran and said that as long as Muslims have this, we can not defeat them. This was years ago and nothing has changed except a rhetoric that we are hearing sometimes which actually has become the hallmark of hypocrisy and double-standards. The fact of the matter is that when you look at the aspiration of Muslims within Palestine or elsewhere, you see that over the years people have actually been eventually drawn back to their Islamic principles of bringing independence and self-determination for themselves, and to address the oppression which is being put on them and this indeed has created an environment that many western politicians actually see it as the only sort of aspect which is holding their concept of slavering the whole of the Muslim world, 1 billion population and indeed their land, oil and their resources. So, really there is a political aspect to this and this aspect truly and really is baseless, because Muslims have always lived happily with others and as a matter of fact they have respected others lot more than any other philosophy or tradition or religious group has ever done right across of the world and so these, although are perceptions that are understood by some politicians in the west it really is baseless and all Muslims want is equal access to their independence, and the rights according to this and walk in a world that by its nature be multi-religious. In our Quran Allah clearly commands that there should be no compulsion in religion. And they have never forced anyone to become Muslims. We have never gone around killing and looting to turn people into Islam and indeed by that definition it means that we are probably the most official religion that actually believes in multi-religious sort of bases and indeed we see wherever Islam is flourishing, other minorities are given much more rights than others.