The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has opened the first UN seminar on confronting Islamophobia with a plea not to judge Muslims by the acts of extremists who deliberately target and kill civilians. In his speech Annan urged people to condemn terrorist and violent acts carried out in the name of Islam but which 'no cause can justify' adding that "Muslims themselves, especially, should speak out, as so many did following the September 11 attacks on the United States, and show a commitment to isolate those who preach or practice violence, and to make it clear that these are unacceptable distortions of Islam".
The seminar is part of a series entitled "Unlearning Intolerance", sponsored by the UN Department of Public Information, and comes six months after the first UN seminar devoted to confronting anti-Semitism
