E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.1 page 22 95. Nevertheless, the representatives pointed out the following problems affecting their community: (a) They noted the inadequacy of public subsidies for Muslim schools; (b) They drew particular attention to prejudice against their community and suspicion of Islam conveyed by the media, which sent a message to the Argentine people that Islam and Muslims are linked with fanaticism, terrorism and violence. An example was given of a very popular Argentine journalist, Bernardo Newtadh, who went on television saying that a Muslim was a person holding the Koran in one hand and a gun in the other. The representatives stated that this was linked to specific situations such as the Middle East conflict, and events such as the destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The suspicion of Islam was, moreover, overlaid by suspicion of Arabs, so that all Arabs, whether Muslim or Christian, were associated in the media with terrorism. Press organs even publicized interviews on the Middle East containing calls for murder, such as a statement by a rabbi in Israel calling on people to set bombs and kill all Arabs. 96. Such actions inevitably had an impact on the Argentine Muslim Arab community, which was deeply troubled by the generalizations, stereotyping and insults regarding Islam and Arabs in some of the media. The Muslim Arab representatives noted that this was not a phenomenon peculiar to Argentina, but one that existed virtually worldwide. This anti-Islam and anti-Arab sentiment had a number of consequences, such as the serious difficulty in obtaining visas encountered by Middle East nationals wishing to visit relatives in Argentina, an atmosphere of suspicion, even interrogations of fully integrated Argentine Muslim Arabs, especially since the bomb attacks on the Israeli Embassy and AMIA. Lastly, although it is not possible to establish any formal link with media intolerance, and pending an investigation, there was a bomb attack against the Ad’ Tahid mosque on 20 January 2001. There were similar attacks on the Buenos Aires mosque in 1983 and the Flores mosque in 2000. 97. The Muslim Arab representatives indicated that efforts by their community to lay these problems to rest had been fruitless. Firstly, protests sent to the media were ignored. For example, despite the sending of 70 protests against the statements by the rabbi cited above, none has appeared in the press. There is also a selective and ambiguous attitude in most of the media. On the one hand, in passive terms, the media serve as a channel for negative messages about Muslims and Arabs, overlooking the great wealth of Islam and any positive initiatives by Argentine Muslim Arabs (for example, there was no report in the press on the non-aggression protocol signed by the Jewish and Muslim and Christian Arab communities under the auspices of INADI in 1998); on the other hand, the media are on the lookout for any action affecting the Jewish community, in particular any displays of anti-Semitism. This approach vis-à-vis the Jewish community has been welcomed by the Muslim Arab community, which, however, would like to be similarly treated. In addition, the Muslim Arab representatives, while welcoming the contacts established with government authorities and their prompt reaction to the January 2001 attack, note that problems remain. 98. Lastly, while recalling their full integration in Argentine society and their contribution to the development of the country and while welcoming their satisfactory situation in terms of freedom of belief and freedom to manifest their religion or belief, the Muslim Arab