A/HRC/4/19 page 14 III. CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATIONS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE 34. In this part of the report the Special Rapporteur wishes to draw the Human Rights Council’s attention to some particularly alarming problems and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. Although political platforms which incite or promote racial discrimination, as well as the related issue of the activities of neo-Nazi groups, are mentioned in the following paragraphs, these issues are addressed in depth in a separate report (A/HRC/4/44), which will be submitted to the Council at its current session. A. Incitement to racial or religious hatred 35. In September 2006, pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 1/107 entitled “Incitement to racial and religious hatred and the promotion of tolerance”, the Special Rapporteur and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief submitted a joint report on incitement to racial or religious hatred to the Council at its second session. In its decision, the Council requested the two Rapporteurs “to report […] on this phenomenon, in particular its implications for article 20, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”. 36. The Special Rapporteur believes that three factors make it necessary to attach high priority, in efforts to combat racism, to the upsurge in incitement to racial and religious hatred. At the political level, the principal factor stems from the trivialization of racism and xenophobia through the political and electoral exploitation of racism and xenophobia, which is reflected in the pervasiveness of racist and xenophobic platforms in the political programmes of democratic parties and by governmental alliances that enable parties that promote such platforms to implement them with the necessary democratic legitimacy. At the ideological level, the principal factor is the Manichean concept of the clash of civilizations and religions that is becoming increasingly widespread in the thinking and rhetoric of the political, intellectual and media elite, and which is manifested in the refusal of diversity, a dogmatic rejection of multiculturalism and a defence of identity based on intangible “values”. At the legal level, these two ominous trends are reflected in a hierarchical interpretation of fundamental freedoms that ignores the balance and complementarity of such freedoms and the restrictions and limits so carefully established by the relevant international instruments, particularly by giving preference to freedom of expression over all other freedoms, such as freedom of religion. B. Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Christianophobia 37. The defamation of religions and the rise of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Christianophobia and hostility towards spiritual and religious traditions of Asian origin - such as Hinduism and Buddhism - and of African origin - such as voodoo and its syncretic forms such as candomblé and santeria - form part of and stem from three ominous trends. First, the amalgam and interweaving of racial, cultural and religious factors are the main characteristics of the current political and ideological climate, particularly following the tragic events of 11 September 2001 in the United States of America. Secondly, at the ideological and