UN-backed group calls for better Islam portrayal

ISTANBUL, Nov 14 (Reuters) Religious and political leaders, in a UN-backed push to bridge cultural divisions, urged global media to portray Islam more favourably and act responsibly to avert replays of this year's ''cartoon crisis''.

Muslim Turkey and Catholic Spain launched the ''Alliance of Civilisations'' last year and Prime Ministers Tayyip Erdogan and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero presented UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday the movement's report, drawn up by academics, politicians and clergy.

Annan backed calls in the report, commissioned amid predictions of a ''clash of civilisations'', for the media to act responsibly, particularly when dealing with religion.

Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad stirred angry protests across the Muslim world in January and February, though many people in Europe defended them as a price worth paying for freedom of expression.

''We must convince them (the media) that rights carry with them an inherent responsibility and should be exercised with sensitivity, especially when dealing with symbols and traditions which are sacred to other people,'' Annan told a news conference yesterday.

The report urged media to portray more ''normalised Muslim and other under-represented or negatively stereotyped communities''.

It called for more education on other religions and cultures and steps to ''empower immigrant communities'' in the wake of recent riots by immigrants in France's suburbs.

Muslim but secular Turkey has long promoted Istanbul, which straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus straits, as a natural bridge between diverse cultures and religions.

The city of 12 million people is home to Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, and is also proud of its history of welcoming Jewish refugees, whether from 15th century Spain or from Nazi Germany.

DIALOGUE South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a member of the panel, said Monday's meeting was a good achievement for inter-faith dialogue.

''To have (former Iranian President Mohammad) Khatami over there, to have a Jewish rabbi over there, sitting in the same room, at the same table and getting to agree, and they don't come to blows! That's something,'' Tutu told Reuters.

But others said actions were needed as well as words.

''We are talking about things about which no one can have any doubts... but then we have to see in practice, in each situation, if these things are brought about,'' said the Vatican's envoy to Turkey, Antonio Lucibello.

Erdogan, a pious Muslim, defended his decision not to meet Pope Benedict this month when he visits Turkey, saying he had to attend a NATO meeting in Latvia at that time.

''It's not a question of avoiding such an invitation, but life goes on,'' said Erdogan.

Erdogan was among millions of Muslims upset and annoyed earlier this year by the Pope's comments that appeared to depict Islam as a religion prone to violence.

Benedict quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor who spoke of the Prophet Mohammad's ''command to spread by the sword the faith he preached''. He later said he was trying to explain that religion and reason went together, not religion and violence.

In an apparent reference to that spat, the Alliance called for more accessible information about ''those parts of the Islamic heritage which deal with pluralism, rationality and the scientific method''.

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