KARACHI, April 24: The need for improved interaction and cooperation between the West and the Muslim world, particularly in the higher education sector and media, was termed essential for removing misperceptions about each other and removing frictions between them.

Dr Gunter Mulack, German Ambassador to Pakistan, spelt this out while speaking on Islam, Europe and Media Ethics, organized by the SZABIST.

The ambassador, who had earlier acted as his country’s special envoy on inter-faith dialogue, emphasized the significance of education for the development and progress of the Muslim world, and said that Muslim world did not need nuclear bombs or F16s. Instead, he added, it needed to focus more on education, especially of the youth. In this context, he said that cooperation with the European countries in education sector, especially in higher education, would go a long way in improving understanding of each other’s social and cultural values.

Dr Mulack acknowledged that a vast majority of the Muslim population was peaceful and tolerant, and only a few extremists had exploited the name of religion for their political and personal gains. He was also critical of the western electronic and print media, and said that they had exaggerated facts about the Islamic media and did not present a true picture.

He said that European intelligentsia believed that the western world was also responsible for increasing fundamentalist trend in the Muslim world, supporting despotic regimes and dictators for their own interests and failed to resolve the problems faced by the Muslim world, particularly in the case of Palestine issue. He termed the knowledge of the West about Islam ‘limited’, and said that western people thought that only the Arab world represented Islam, which was a wrong perception. More Muslims live in the Asian countries that have divergent and rich cultures.

He condemned the newspapers that had published blasphemous cartoons, and described the act as ‘irresponsible journalism’, saying that editors-in -chief of the newspapers were responsible, and not the governments concerned.

He said that it was not possible for the EU to introduce anti-blasphemy law. Rather, media had the responsibility to respect the religious figures and it should evolve a code of conduct in this regard. He said that the groups who had been killing and abducting people in the Iraq were criminals and were exploiting the name of Islam.

The German ambassador said that after 9/11, the Holy Quran was translated in many languages and people had learnt about the teaching and learning of Islam. He said that German people had more amicable relationship than others with the Muslim world as they did not colonize their lands, but translated in German language the poetry of Hafiz, Saadi and other Muslim philosophers.

He said that bombing in London and Spain had generated anger among European people about Islam, and the media also exaggerated this and did not present facts about the Islam.

He said that Islam was not a religion that encouraged violence, and the Holy Prophet (PBUH) stressed upon seeking knowledge and love for other religions and their followers.

The ambassador called upon the majority of Muslims, whom he described as peaceful, to come forward to isolate the tiny minority, who would defame Islam and use the religion as a weapon of terror.