MOVING BEYOND STEREOTYPES

A report about stereotypes and mutual prejudices in

education and media.
Europe and the Middle East

Copenhagen May 2006

SUMMARY:

In May, 2006, the Danish Centre for Culture and Development, DCCD, held a
conference in Copenhagen supported by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The conference dealt with stereotypes and prejudices in education and media,
and the participants came from a wide range of countries in the Middle East and
Europe.

The Danish and the Arab media both use stereotypes to promote an image of
the Dane or the Arab / Muslim as better and morally superior.

In the Arab media, the West is often synonymous with moral deficiency, cultural
incompatibility, political supremacy, and religious animosity towards Islam,
whereas in the West, Arab or Muslim societies are often synonymous with
moral puritanism, cultural confusion, political instability, and religious
fundamentalism.

As a result of this misrepresentation of the West, the Western model of

democracy ends up working against the democratization effort of the Arab
societies.

There are extensive opportunities to overcome the media's shortcomings by

increasing journalists' professional skills and cultural sensitivity in avoiding
stereotypes, by increasing media diversity, by instilling leadership within the
media industry, and by supporting educational-entertainment media which offer a
global perspective.

Arab educators, policy makers, and reformists agree that the education system
needs urgent reforms at all levels in order to meet the challenges of
globalization. Today, Arab and Muslim societies often produce students with very
narrow vision.

Dialogue is not enough to face the new challenges. The elimination of prejudices
and negative stereotyping requires implementation of educational strategies with
several forms, such as:

• Foreign language teaching

• Reform of history teaching
• Reform of teachers education
• Government supervision over religious schools

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The Western educational system also needs revision to go beyond stereotyping.
Teaching religion and intercultural understanding is just as important as teaching
mathematics, therefore teachers need to be equipped with the right skills and
tools to fight misunderstandings and meet the challenges of a global world.
Especially when it comes to religion.

Students can benefit from exchange programmes where they spend an academic
year in another culture with a local family, attending a local school. There already
exists a variety of NGO exchange programmes between the West and the Arab
world.

This report is based on the Chatham House off-the-record rule, and does not
necessarily represent the views of the organizers, nor of the co-sponsors. It is a
presentation of the views that were presented during the conference by the
participants as well as the conclusions and the policy recommendations.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background 5

Prejudices and Stereotypes 7

Prejudices and Stereotypes in the Media 8

The Role of the Media in Countering Stereotypes and Prejudices 10

Stereotypes in Education and the Importance of Education in Fighting

Stereotypes 13

Recommendations 16

List of Participants 18

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BACKGROUND:

The events of September 11, 2001 and what followed emphasized the need for
better dialogue between people in Muslim societies and those in Western
societies. Stereotypes and prejudices seem to have become more dominant in
both directions. They are visible in political discourse, in the media and in
education, and have become an impediment to dialogue and co-operation. As a
local incident with worldwide repercussions, the recent controversy over
drawings in a Danish newspaper has illustrated this with overwhelming intensity.

In Europe, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudices have become more prevalent

and have made life difficult for many citizens with an Arab or Muslim background.
The manifestations have been manifold including widespread and routine negative
stereotypes that occur both in the media, in education and in political and
everyday discourse.

Similar kinds of negative stereotypes in reverse have also become prevalent both
in Middle Eastern societies and among some immigrant groups of Arab or Muslim
background living in Europe.

In order to stop these stereotypes from taking root and spreading, it is necessary
to develop practical strategies and instruments that take into account the variety
of geographical and historical context.

This conference was organized in the context of the “Alliance of Civilizations”,

which has been established by the Secretary General of the United Nations with
Spain and Turkey as co-sponsors. The conclusions of the conference will be
transmitted to the High-Level Group of the Alliance of Civilizations.

The conference is also a follow-up of the “Rabat Commitment” formulated in

2005 at the conference “Dialogue between Cultures and Civilizations: Towards
Concrete and Sustained Actions” co-organized by UNESCO, ISESCO, ALECSO,
OIC, DCCD, Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation, and in co-operation
with the Council of Europe. The UNESCO Governing Body and the OIC Foreign
Ministers’ Meeting have ratified the Rabat Commitment

AIM AND THEMES:

The aim of the conference was to address the current problems of stereotypes
and mutual prejudices. Europe and Muslim Middle Eastern societies were chosen
as areas of focus.

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It was decided to focus on the two themes of MEDIA and EDUCATION:

• Identifying problems.
• Sharing knowledge of and experience with initiatives which have been
taken in order to deal with the identified problems.
• Discussing the most constructive ways to counter stereotyping and
misinformation in European and Middle Eastern societies.
• Formulating conclusions which can be fed back as practical policy
suggestions through the Alliance of Civilizations process, into the
different professional circles of the participants and through the
conference report which will be published and distributed.

SESSIONS:

The conference was structured around an opening session and four working
sessions. In each session the moderator opened with a brief overview of the field
setting the scene.
Short papers (20-30 minutes) discussed different aspects of and different regional
approaches to the subject.
The papers were followed by a roundtable discussion including shorter
presentations focusing on best practices. The last part of the session aimed at
debating the problems and formulating policy suggestions.

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OPENING AND WELCOME:

The Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs opened the conference by saying that the
brand of “Denmark” after the cartoon crisis had moved from being a positive
stereotype among Muslims to being more firmly associated with a negative
stereotype of the West. But he confirmed that Denmark remains a small,
tolerant and liberal welfare state.
The speech can be read in full at: www.um.dk

PREJUDICES AND STEREOTYPES: OPENING SESSION

We all use stereotypes. They help us classify and identify people based on
criteria such as religion, gender, and ethnicity. It is a process of categorization
which has always existed and will always exist because it makes our lives easier.

Stereotypes are common in thought. They are short cuts and real timesavers:
everybody knows right away what we are talking about, and therefore,
stereotypes are used all the time – especially in the media.

The problem with stereotypes is when we begin using them to give negative
characteristics to other groups and treat individual members of these groups
according to those characteristics.
The lack of critical thought and the lack of knowledge favours an unconscious
acceptance of the “truth” employed in stereotypes. It is when we do not know
or when we have little information about another group that we accept a
stereotype as a real image and start applying this “half truth” to the whole group.

Stereotypes are so powerful because they are simple, easily recognizable and
enjoy the acceptance of the community in general. But they also discriminate and
feed racism and xenophobia.
They are essential but in a global world we have to understand how they
emerge, how they function and why insufficient information favour negative
stereotypes in order to go beyond them.

A drawing can be read very easily or not at all. What is amusing in one society
might be offensive in another. Stereotypes are very convenient when it comes to
organizing our surroundings in a safe world that belongs to “us” and a disturbing
outside world inhabited by “them”.

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Einstein once said: it is easier to split atoms than to get rid of prejudice. And he
had a point. Knowledge is good but it is not always enough. Education makes us
more tolerant for a while but it can also foster less tolerance if we use religion
or culture as a cover up for problems related to political power, poverty, tyranny
and neo-imperialism.

For centuries mass media have produced images of Muslims and Islam as
something to be justifiably afraid of. Images of Turks killing innocent Christians
and images of Arabs beating Arabs have left the West with an impression of a
violent “outside” world. But to use these disturbing images to make a potential
terrorist out of every Muslim, to consider any Muslim and Islam a risk to Danish
and European welfare and democracy is a serious and strategic mistake.

The cartoon crisis is one evidence of the dangers of buying into the discourse of
the clash of civilizations, and the Danish as well as other European governments
have to find ways of integrating Islam and Muslims socially, economically, and
politically instead of “proving” the stereotypes and “creating” images of terrorists
by marginalizing and excluding Muslims from Western societies.

STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES IN THE MEDIA

There are three key moments in the history of Danish media coverage of Islam.
The first was in the spring of 1997, when the tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet
teamed up with the Danish Peoples Party to launch a campaign against
immigrants and refugees. The second was in 2001, when a major story broke in
the Danish press about three young Danish Muslims with Pakistani backgrounds
infiltrating Danish political parties, and the last was in September 2005, when the
Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten published the now famous 12 cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad.

In the beginning there was hardly any coverage of the cartoons in the Danish
mass media. Only when Muslim communities and Danish groups of authors,
doctors, scientists, ministers, and others reacted to the tone of the media debate
on ethnic minorities, did the mass media begin to cover the cartoon issue.

The coverage grew more intense when the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh
Rasmussen refused to meet with 11 ambassadors representing half a billion
Muslim people. From that point, the story turned global and released what has
been called the most serious crisis in Danish foreign policy since World War 2.

In order to avoid further damage, Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s spin doctors advised
him and the government to use two main strategies: First, to hold firmly onto
the argument that the controversy is about freedom of speech, and second, to
blame the Muslims for stirring up trouble.

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And it worked. Soon the debate changed and became a question along the lines
of “we” in Denmark and in the Western World have freedom of speech while
“you guys” in the Muslim world do not, so you have a problem, not us, meaning
that “We” in the West are civilized. “You” in the Arab world are not.

The Danish and the Arab media suffer from the same illness. They both use
stereotypes to promote an image of the Dane or the Arab as better and morally
just.

However, it is worth noting that it is not so much the individual Westerner who
is stereotyped in the Arab world, but Western culture and society. In this media
discourse the West is often synonymous with moral deficiency, cultural
incompatibility, political supremacy, and religious animosity towards Islam,
whereas the Arab world is often synonymous with moral purity, cultural
diversity, political powerlessness, and religious victimhood.

The Arab media users are frequently presented with a self-image as the innocent
and defenceless victims against an aggressive West. This is “orientalism in
reverse” and cultural essentialism where civilizations are meant to confront and
misunderstand each other. As Islamic thinker Anwar Abd al-Malik said it years
before Samuel P. Huntington:
“The most salient characteristic of our age is the ongoing clash of civilizations
between the Orient and the West”.

As a result of this misrepresentation of the West, both as power holders and

societies in the Arab mass media, the Western democracy model ends up
working against the democratization effort of the Arab societies.

The publication of the 12 drawings in Jyllands-Posten of the Prophet Muhammad

has forever changed the image of Denmark as a better part of the Western
world, which is very disturbing for many secular Muslims.

If we include the impression that the West is using double standards by tabooing
Holocaust denial and drawings of Christ and not Muslim religious symbol,s we
are moving one step forward and two steps back in restoring the already
tormented relationship between the West and the Arab world.

In Egypt, the cartoon controversy has been used as a perfect excuse for not
seeing allies in the West, and in Spain the right wing media have used the
cartoons to spark a debate about immigrants from Morocco and the Middle East,
who for the most parts are seen as terrorists.

Since September 30, 2005 when the cartoons appeared in Jyllands-Posten, the
Danish mass media have been more careful in dealing with the Arab world, and
there is no doubt that journalists will think twice before publishing offensive
drawings again. Still it is too early to conclude that it will never happen again.

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In the Arab world – on the other hand - the role of the media is very marginal.
The Arab media are under scrutiny by the state and by Islamic radicals, and
media attention is for the most part displaced from local politics to foreign
affairs.

Both the Arab and the Western media tend to simplify things by almost always
focusing on religion and culture instead of using a political discourse in describing
differences.
The war in Lebanon started out as a conflict between left and right and ended up
being a war between Christians and Muslims, in the media perspectives. Today
we see the same tendency in the media coverage of the conflict in Iraq.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN COUNTERING STEREOTYPES AND

PREJUDICES:

At a time when people speak openly of a so-called clash of civilizations, whether

rightly or wrongly, and influential voices within Europe and the Middle East are
advocating one, the role of the media in countering stereotypes and prejudices is
highly relevant.

There are broadly speaking three positions on this issue:

• The role of the media is to report, to provide analysis, and to defend the
right to do so. If this either reduces or promotes prejudice, so be it.
• The media have a responsibility, and in fact a duty, to reflect and promote
a set of core values of tolerance and mutual understanding.
• The role of the media is not only to report what people do and say, but
also to consistently question received wisdom and particularly the
wisdom of those in power.

Almost a year ago the UN Secretary General launched an initiative – Alliance of

Civilizations - to address the widening gap between Muslim and Western
societies by examining five core areas of society:

• Education
• Immigrant integration
• Media
• Youth
• Political context

In the media field, researchers have identified how the media in both the Islamic
world and the West contribute to misinformation, stirred up feelings, and
alienation. Although there are different structures in different places, the
outcome is the same.

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The media cannot easily tell citizens what to think. But they tell them what to
think about – they set their agenda and understanding by the ideas they plant, the
pictures they sketch, and the opinions they offer.

The western media like to see themselves as independent, dedicated to

democracy, and socially responsible, but in reality, profit drives producers to
present superficial information and repeat stereotypes.

The news model in the Islamic world is more multi-faceted. In some places, the
media are heavily censored and viewed through filters of national or Islamic
identity. In other Muslim states, government control is easing and there is a new
diversity in media outlets.

There are extensive opportunities to overcome the media's shortcomings in

both cultures by increasing journalists' professional skills and cultural sensitivity in
avoiding stereotypes, by increasing media diversity, by instilling leadership within
the media industry, and by supporting educational-entertainment media, which
offer a global perspective.

The emergence of new media such as the Internet has made it more difficult to
isolate people in the Arab world. But it has also fostered more prejudices. The
Internet has created an open and uncontrolled space for information where
stereotypes are being used to shape the enemy. How do we deal with this new
hidden media – do we need to redraft the concept of freedom of expression and
draw some red lines, or do we encourage reporters to go beyond the
stereotypes and report about normality and daily life?

The aim of the UN-initiated Alliance of Civilizations is not legislation but

awareness and consciousness. But will this new awareness hold when war breaks
out and the media come under pressure from both editors and governments?

Some could argue that only by setting limits and redefining freedom of speech
can we avoid offensive drawings like the Danish cartoons in the future. But
wouldn’t this just be like going back in history and reintroduce censorship?

It is much better to encourage journalists to go behind the stereotypes and

report about daily life in the Middle East, than to regulate. How strange it must
be, for example, to work as a reporter in Israel and never write or report about
normal life but only about conflicts and politics. We need normality – not
stereotypes.

The hidden media have a good and a bad side. So does the movie industry. In
fact, the movie industry is much more powerful than the hidden media. Since
September 11, 2001, we have seen a growing number of Hollywood movies
portraying Muslims as terrorists. We cannot change the movie industry but we
can go beyond the stereotypes and prejudices and show how the other half lives
in the Middle East: the people who are not terrorists, not fundamentalists, but
ordinary people with ordinary lives.

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And this is not only about tolerance. It is about respecting one another.
Good reporting is about seeing the nuances and details in the story. Bad
reporting is stereotyping.

In the Western media, Islam is hardly ever covered as a religion, but as

something that has to do with politics, fundamentalism, or terrorism. The
drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head is an example of
this.

The Arab media, on the other hand, love conspiracy theories and see the
Westerners as sex fixated people with no moral, uncivilized politics, and double
standards.

The only way out of this media misery on both sides, is education in intercultural
relations, an international code of ethics, and dialogue on equal terms of respect.

The Danish-Arab Media Forum, for example, has established a platform for
collaboration and dialogue between Arab/Iranian and Danish media. The
programme will serve as a journalistic tool to create opportunities for
professional exchange and access to a number of sources. The aim is to
strengthen the professional skills of the media professionals and the mutual
cultural understanding and insight.

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STEREOTYPES IN EDUCATION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF
EDUCATION IN FIGHTING STEREOTYPES:

We cannot take for granted that better education makes better people. Europe
has a very good educational system but stereotyping still remains. The conflict
between the Arab world and the West is reduced to a matter of religion.
Religion might be a factor, but is not the main problem. The main problem is
money – in other words ‘God may be great, but money is better’.

Today, incompetent and corrupt governments, discrimination against women,

and a lack of quality in education characterize most of the countries in the
Middle East. One human development report concludes that creating a satisfied
middle class through macroeconomic stability, good governance, and major
investments in human resources like health and education would make most of
the problems disappear.

All governments in the Arab world have questioned the reliability of the Arab
Human Development Reports, but nobody can deny the fact that economic
instability and lack of education remain a big problem in the region.

Arab education, particularly education related to religious and Islamic teaching,

has been under attack, not only by foreigners, but also by Arab reformists. The
criticism is based on the fact that education has failed to instill behaviors and
attitudes which conform to the real Islamic principles that call for peace,
forgiveness, and tolerance. They claim that the present education produces
young people who are not equipped with these principles, and, therefore, are
vulnerable to be enlisted in criminal and terrorist groups.

The lack of intercultural studies has also been criticized. In general, Arab
education suffers from this lack. Only very few universities have courses in
intercultural studies and the philosophy of religions, and, therefore, it is too far
from adapting the concept of intercultural education, which is necessary for the
understanding of other cultures.

There is a consensus among Arab educators, policy makers, and reformists that
the education system needs urgent reforms on all levels in order to meet the
challenges of globalization. Today, the Arab world produces students with a very
narrow vision.

Dialogue is not enough to face the new challenges. Eliminating prejudices and
negative stereotyping require implementation of educational strategies with
several forms, such as:

• Foreign language teaching

• Reform of history teaching

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 • Reform of teacher education
• Government supervision over religious schools

In Europe, religious education is mainly concentrated on Christianity, Judaism,

and in a few countries also Islam. But the three religions are treated very
differently.

In most of the European countries, children get separate religious education. In a

few countries, like the Netherlands, religion is integrated in the history and
language curricula, and finally in countries like England, Sweden, and Denmark all
children are taught together in one classroom about the diversity of religion.
But even here, the approach to “own” and “other” religion is very different and
tends to be stereotypical. Judaism is presented as a “tragedy”, on the one hand as
an Old Testament narrative which was superseded by the New Testament and,
on the other, as the Nazi genocide followed by restitution in the founding of a
state, Israel. Teaching of Islam is often restricted to the core doctrine – one God
and Muhammad as His messenger and the “five pillars”.

From an educational rather than a religious perspective, there is a need for a

European framework for religious education, which guarantees that every
student gets a chance to learn about different religions from an unbiased,
impartial point of view. The students should be encouraged to develop a basic
and critical knowledge of the three main religious traditions and their cultures,
because this knowledge will help them to appreciate the diverse nature of
European society and to accept and respect the differences.

Over the past years, there have been a number of practical attempts to
deconstruct stereotypes and create dialogue between the West and the Arab
world. One is the Peace College – an international Master programme (MA) in
Peace and Conflict Studies designed for Israeli, Palestinian, and Scandinavian
students. The students lived together at Tantur, Jerusalem, for 15 months, taking
courses in peace and conflict studies, regional history, conflict resolution, and
history. The programme operated from 1999 to 2004. It was regarded as a
success because the students stayed together for a long time and got a very good
and “free” education. Some of the students later went into PhD programmes or
started working within Israeli or Palestinian government agencies.

Another attempt to fight negative stereotyping and broaden the perspective in

other cultures is the educational programmes of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The
programmes support mutual exchange and regional co-operation among
educators and students aged 12-18 between Europe and Mediterranean
countries. The objective is to support mutual exchange and build a bridge
between schools and civic societies. The Foundation has organized two
workshops: How to Deal with Religious Diversity in Classrooms and a teacher
training course on Religious Diversity in Intercultural Dialogue and Gender
Issues, 20-24 November, 2006, in Alexandria, Egypt.

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The non-governmental AFS Student Cultural Exchange programme also provides
intercultural learning opportunities for mid-teen students. The students spend
one academic year in a different culture, living with a local family attending the
local school. The aim is to help them develop the knowledge, skills, and
understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world as global citizens.
After attending AFS, the students have shown a remarkably drop in their anxiety
for other cultures.

It is an experience which can dramatically change your views of the world and
your perception of the other and completely challenge all the stereotypes that
you – consciously or unconsciously – grew up with. An experience which can
teach you tolerance, empathy, and acceptance of the difference in people.

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RECOMMENDATIONS:

Media:

Co-ordination of media training programmes in the West and the Arab World.

Education for journalists in multiculturalism and religion. Urging them to focus

more on daily life.

More courses in ethics and quality standards in journalism schools. And more
focus on courses in reporting economy rather than politics.

Development of global standards for journalism.

Stronger economic support for NGOs like the media development agencies.

Publication of an intercultural monthly magazine, edited, written, and designed by

professionals from the Arab world and the West. The magazine should cover a
broad range of subjects, but with special focus on a specific subject in each issue
such as poverty, youth, or human rights.

Education:

Revision of curricula and school text books in the West and in the Arab world in
order to “clean” them of any stereotypes

Distinguishing between religious instruction and teaching about religion –

teaching about religion is just as important as teaching mathematics, therefore
there should be courses designed especially for teachers who teach about
religion.

Massive teacher training courses to empower teachers to teach about different

cultures in a world in constant change.

Development of a European framework for religious education.

Intercultural youth exchange programmes with quality standards and possibilities

for economic support so not only the elite can afford to participate.

More funding of programmes like the Anne Lindh Euro-Mediterranean

Foundation.

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In General:

Exchange programmes for all kinds of professionals: journalists, teachers,

politicians, etc between the West and the Arab world.

An overview of all the exchange programmes, media training courses, etc which
already exist.

Involvement of the business sector by organizing small visiting groups.

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Ms. Wanda Alberts, Lecturer in the Study of Religions, University of Bremen,

Germany.

Dr. Mikael Baaz, Post.doc. researcher, Göteborg University, Sweden.

Mr. Torben Brandt, Journalist and head of Danish – Arab Media Forum,
Denmark.

Dr. Abdalla Bubtana, Arab Educational Consultant. Former Chief of Higher

Education Unit at UNESCO Headquarters. Director and Representative of
UNESCO to the States of the Gulf, Libya.
and professional organisations. A
Mr. Sven Burmester, Writer and former Vice Director of the World Bank,
Denmark.

Ms. Mariam Fayez, Deputy Director of Media Relations Department, Ministry

of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt. Board member of
Egyptian AFS.

Mr. Osama al-Habahbeh, Journalist, Danish Centre for Culture and

Development, Denmark

Dr. Hanan Kassab Hassan, Professor at Damascus University and Dean of the
Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, Syria.

Mr. Reijo Heinonen, Professor at the University of Joensuu, Finland.

Dr. Peter Hervik, Ass. Professor at International Migration and Ethnic

Relations (IMER), Malmö University, Sweden.

Dr. Tim Jensen, Ass. Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Religion,
University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

Mr. Munir al-Majid, freelance journalist, Denmark.

Mr. Moncef Moalla, Education Project Officer, UNICEF and chairperson of a

Tunisian NGO active in the field of Intercultural Education, Tunisia.

Dr. Jørgen S. Nielsen, Director of the Danish Institute in Damascus and

professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Ms. Onghena, Yolanda, responsible Àrea Interculturalidad /Intercultural Unit,

CIDOB foundation, Barcelona, Spain

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Ms Eman Qaraeen, Senior Programme Specialist for Educational Networking
at the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation, Alexandria, Egypt. Former
head of Education, Heritage and Human Rights Unit at the UNESCO office in
Amman.

Ms Hannan Rabbani, Human Rights Officer at United Nations Assistance

Mission for Iraq, Amman, Jordan.

Mr. Martin Woollacott. Foreign Affairs Columnist at the daily newspaper The
Guardian.

Mr. Hanna Ziadeh, Senior Researcher at the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue

Institute in Cairo, Egypt.

______________________

Mr. Ross Howard, secretariat of the Alliance of Civilisations

Mr. Olaf Gerlach Hansen, Director General of the Danish Centre for Culture
and Development.

Ms. Anne Lea Landsted, rapporteur

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