A/59/329 football stadiums and at other sports venues. FIFA action against racism has included a congress held in Buenos Aires on 6 July 2001. The congress issued a resolution requiring “all persons involved directly or indirectly with the sport of football at all levels and in all countries to join a concerted action to exchange information and experiences in order to combat effectively and conclusively all manifestations of racism within the game, by denouncing and sanctioning all persons indulging in racism in any form”. In 2002, it also launched an annual AntiDiscrimination Day, marked by various activities clearly signalling that racism and discrimination are unacceptable in football and in society as a whole. In March 2003, the FIFA Executive Committee adopted a new rule making the handshake between members of opposing teams an integral part of official protocol for the Confederations Cup. This “final gesture of protocol” was intended to set a sporting example, reminding spectators that respect for rivals and referees comes before the contest itself. 34. Beyond the action taken by FIFA, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has also stepped up its campaign against racism. In July 2003, together with Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), it launched an anti-racism guide to help the football community to confront that phenomenon. FARE has continued to organize an annual anti-racist world cup in Montecchio in Italy. It is both a sporting and a cultural event which brings together artists and nonprofessional footballers of European and immigrant backgrounds. 35. FIFA and UEFA have made important contributions to putting a stop to racism in football stadiums, but the International Olympic Committee and the International Tennis Federation need to adopt similar measures. These international sporting bodies should work actively with each other, with the United Nations system and with Member States. The Special Rapporteur wishes to keep a record of racist incidents in sport and the action taken against such incidents by sporting bodies, whose collaboration he is seeking in that task. D. Racism connected with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia 36. In the ideological context of post-11-September counter-terrorism efforts, discrimination and racism have acquired a growing presence in the sphere of religion. Culture, religion and ethnic origin are being confused with one another and used as excuses for deliberate acts of discrimination. A new, openly and publicly expressed thinking has emerged, according to which racism and discrimination are justified and legitimized by security considerations or the need to defend a “threatened identity” and ethnic, cultural and religious pluralism are rejected, producing discriminatory or xenophobic practices of various degrees of seriousness, depending on the country. This thinking has created a situation in which influential intellectuals and opinion-formers increasingly link Islamophobia, terrorism and violence. One such person is Oriana Fallaci, an Italian writer and journalist living in New York. In her recent book La Forza della ragione (The Force of Reason),2 she expands on her hostility towards Islam and her view that the United Nations is “Islamophilic” and claims that the Organization, “together with the ineffable European Union, invented the crimes of Islamophobia and defaming Islam”. In a direct attack on the Special Rapporteur, she calls the description in his latest report __________________ 2 Oriana Fallaci, La Forza della ragione, Milan, Rizzoli, 2004. 17