A/60/283 (iv) Application of the principle of secularism must be subject to particular vigilance so as not to generate or legitimize new forms of discrimination and, above all, not to constitute an obstacle to full participation in public life by believers and practitioners of various religions; (v) Respect for and promotion of religious and spiritual pluralism. 8. The Special Rapporteur recommended that the Commission invite the religious and cultural communities that are victims of these phobias to not only promote indepth intercultural and interreligious dialogue, including through the establishment of joint structures in each country in which they coexisted, but also to explore the internal factors in their beliefs and practices which might have contributed to these phobias. 9. The Special Rapporteur also recommended that the Commission invite civil society to further mobilize against all these phobias, without prioritization, and above all to actively promote dialogue and interaction between the communities concerned. 2. (a) Observations on the resolutions adopted Avoidance of prioritization in efforts to combat religious defamation 10. In its resolution 2005/3 of 12 April 2005 entitled “Combating defamation of religions”, the Commission, alarmed at the negative projection of Islam in the media and at the introduction and enforcement of laws that specifically discriminate against and target Muslims, noted with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions in the aftermath of the tragic events of 11 September 2001. It expressed deep concern that Islam was frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism. The Commission therefore requested the Special Rapporteur to continue to examine the situation of Muslims and Arab peoples in various parts of the world, the discrimination faced by them with regard to access to justice, political participation, respect of cultures, physical assaults and attacks against their places of worship, cultural centres, businesses and properties in the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001 and to report on his findings to the Commission at its sixty-second session, and to make recommendations to improve their situation. 11. The Special Rapporteur believes that, in the ideological context created by the tragic events of 11 September 2001, Islamophobia is a particularly alarming manifestation of discrimination. He wishes to draw the General Assembly’s attention to the dynamic of the clash of cultures, civilizations and religions arising from four aspects of Islamophobia: (a) the perception, in reaction to acts of violence perpetrated by individuals claiming to be Muslims, of all Muslims and of the Islamic community as a whole as a political problem; (b) official policies of monitoring the teaching and practice of Islam; (c) the general increase in acts of violence against Islamic places of worship and culture and Muslim worshippers; and (d) the overt intellectual legitimization of Islamophobia by leading researchers and writers and by some media outlets. In the Special Rapporteur’s view, any study of this increase in Islamophobia should be based on both the historical, theological and contextual singularity of this phobia and the universality of the underlying causes of the defamation of religions. 7