The riots that engulfed the Arab and Muslim world, after the despicable cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, must come to an end.
The two sides need to seriously re-examine better ways in communication.
Discrimination, racial prejudice and religious intolerance have become a regular feature of life in the West in these modern times.
In fact, while world attention, much as it should be, has been focusing on the reverberations following the publication of the cartoons, 10 Baptist churches in Alabama in the American South were set on fire reportedly by unidentified arsonists.
In the Middle East, an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem is being excavated by Israel to build and this seems ironic a "Museum of Tolerance" financed by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
And lately, when Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal donated $20 million to Harvard University and an equal amount to Georgetown University to advance their Islamic studies programmes, the New York Times Magazine inelegantly headlined an interview with the Saudi philanthropist, "Big Imam on Campus". (Just imagine the reaction if the headline had been "Big Rabbi on Campus" or "Big Bishop on Campus" to underline Jewish or Christian contributions towards religious studies.)
As has been the case lately in Europe, the Muslim community in Denmark, unbeknownst to many outside the country, has been the target of constant verbal abuse particularly at the hands of the Danish Popular Party.
Bouthaina Shaaban, Syrian Minister of Expatriates, writes: "Facts show that Europe is launching a new Holocaust against Muslims around the world. What is happening to Muslims in Europe today is almost identical with what the Jews suffered at the beginning of the [last] century."
She pointed out that Muslims in western Europe change their names and suppress their religious identity "to avoid a racist witch-hunt against them".
In turn, John L. Esposito, founding director of the Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington DC, warns: "The Islamophobia that is becoming a social cancer should be as unacceptable as anti-Semitism, a threat to the very fabric of our democratic pluralistic way of life. Thus, it is imperative for political and religious leaders, commentators and experts, and yes, the media, to lead in building and safeguarding our cherished values."
Media's responsibility
"What we are witnessing today," he adds, "has little to do with Western democratic values and everything to do with a European media that reflects and plays to an increasingly xenophobic and Islamophobic society. Would the mainstream media [in Europe] with impunity publish caricatures of Jews or of the Holocaust?"
Unlike the Danish government which supported the Jyllands-Posten and its decision to publish the offensive cartoons, the Bush administration attempted a difficult balancing act.
While President Bush opined, "With freedom [of expression] comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others," Secretary of Sate Condoleezza Rice voiced unsupported charges that Syria and Iran been using the furore to inflame anti-Western feeling.
Growing up as a Palestinian Christian and going to a select high school run by British missionaries in Haifa during the British Mandate was an eye-opener.
While the school had Muslim and Jewish students, the curriculum had nothing about Islam or Judaism, a point that dawned upon me much later in life.
We all read the Bible three times a week as an exercise in English reading, our parents were told. But in fairness there was no attempt at proselytising.
A good start in the Christian West may be to enlighten today's students about the three monotheistic faiths, certainly their common goals since whether it is Europe or the United States, the growth of Islam is a fact of life.
All in this global village can then hope for less inter-communal strife, if everyone follows the Biblical dictum, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
George Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist.
