A/HRC/7/19 page 16 55. In his most recent report, in line with the request by the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur paid special attention to the consideration of Islamophobia, but also examined other manifestations of religious discrimination, in particular anti-Semitism, Christianophobia and other incitements to hatred targeting the religious or spiritual practices of other ethnic or religious groups. This holistic approach is based on his conviction that the equal treatment of all forms of discrimination is a precondition for effectively combating all manifestations of discrimination and ethnic, cultural or religious intolerance. 56. The Special Rapporteur would first like to emphasize the growing trend of defamation of religions arising from the following factors: the conflation of race, culture and religion; the growing use of religion for political ends; and the intellectual and ideological questioning of religion. At the ideological level, the Manichean concept of a clash of civilizations and religions is gaining ground in the thinking and discourse of the political, intellectual and media elites. The concept of a clash of civilizations, and above all a clash of religions - which provides fertile soil for the defamation of religions - is the new front of the cold war theorists. With its pervasiveness and insidious but far-reaching influence, this new ideology is not only shaping the world view of a growing number of influential politicians and media chiefs, but is also becoming a new paradigm for intellectuals and academics. Its ideological effectiveness is based on the intellectual use of the defence of national identity and security, and on the fight against terrorism, reduced to its purely religious dimension. Using the simplistic, Manichean cold-war approach to deal with these issues serves to legitimize two main objectives: (a) the promotion of a purely materialist form of liberalism, marked by hostility towards, and questioning of, religion and spirituality, which are caricatured as running counter to progress and liberty, and (b) a selective, hierarchical, ideological interpretation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is against this background that we encounter a number of serious manifestations of the resurgence of racism and xenophobia: the electoral success of racist and xenophobic platforms and their infiltration into democratic institutions; the rise of racist violence; the growing expression of racism on the part of elites; the recycling by intellectuals and the media of the concepts on which historical prejudices are based; the ethnicity-based approach to immigration, and the treatment of immigration on the basis of security aspects alone, and not respect for human rights. 57. In this context, the most serious manifestation today is the increase in Islamophobia and the worsening of the situation of Arab and Muslim minorities around the world, in particular following the events of 11 September 2001. Three main developments attest to the seriousness of this situation: the stereotypical association of Islam with violence and terrorism - an association which is bolstered by intellectual constructs, used by political rhetoric and exaggerated in the media and which has a profound impact on the popular imagination; the determination to impose invisibility on its forms of external expression, and silence on its followers, for example, by obstructing the building of mosques or minarets, and by banning any cultural or sartorial expression or outward sign of Islam; and the fundamentally security-based approach to the monitoring and surveillance of places of worship and culture, and even of the teaching of Islam, and hence the resurgence of policies and legislative, administrative and police measures that stigmatize or criminalize national or foreign minorities of the Muslim faith. One of the most striking examples of this suspicion of Islam can be seen in France, with the policy of training imams “approved” by the Republic at the Catholic Institute in Paris. 58. Anti-Semitism - the oldest historical form of religious discrimination and defamation - not only remains deeply pervasive in its traditional haunts, notably in what has become the new