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London, September 17th, 2009. The Annual Dialogue Report of the C-1 World Dialogue was released today in London. The C-1 initiative is co-chaired by the Bishop of London, the Right Rev. & Hon. Dr. Richard Chartres and His Excellency Dr. Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt. To discuss the Report the Editors, Roland Schatz, President of Media Tenor, and Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff, the Director General of the C-1, will be joined by Professor Anthony Grayling of London University who is on the C-1 Executive Committee.
In commending the Report, which is aimed to give an overview of the state of Muslim West Dialogue, Bishop Richard Chartres says that this Report “comes at a time of new impetus in relations with the Muslim world, stimulated by the recent historic speech in Cairo by President Obama. Such a time calls for new action but also for good evidence upon which to ground it.” And the data does show that positive change is indeed possible. For example, the percentage of people who support Bin Laden and Al Quaeda is falling in a number of Muslim countries.
Dr Gomaa the Grand Mufti of Egypt comments, “Establishing and maintaining peace is one of the most urgent issues of our time” and that “Action is clearly vital… but it must be based on knowledge if it is to be effective. It is important to explore and establish the factors that are shaping the course of Muslim-West relations, how opinions are changing over time and why.”
Yet there remains reason for concern as the media image “of the other side” stayed rather unfavourable in 2008/09. The analysis by Media Tenor shows, that especially television, which shapes the attitudes and views of a great portion of the public, emphasizes the negative aspects of religion in general and Islam in particular. While coverage of Muslims and Islam declined in British TV news declined notably in the second half of 2008, the tone remained very negative with a share of more than 20% of critical information broadcast in the first five months of 2009. While everyday life of Muslims and the peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims plays a minor role, the image of Islam remains dominated by war and terrorism, especially with regard to the increasing violence in Afghanistan. Positive news about Muslims are virtually absent from the main evening news in the UK.

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