Annual Dialog Report 2015

The Annual Dialogue Report 2015, was published a few days after the terrorist attack on the French weekly, Charlie Hebdo, after a year that witnessed a severe increase in the hostility between parts of the Muslim World and the West. The long-term analysis shows how the stereotypes in the portrayal of the “other” have not vanished over the years, least of all in opinion-leading media. Data from the year 2014 indicates on the contrary, a further deterioration in the outlook: When the media reported about Muslims and Islam, the tonality dropped to an unprecedented -80% surplus of negative news.

The Annual Dialogue Report was first published in 2008. It provides objective data on the perception of religion and the media coverage of religious issues, in a study that compares attitudes and frames between countries. The analysis focuses especially on the perception of Islam and traces the development from 9/11, over the Pontificate of Benedict XVI and Obama’s 2009 speech in Kairo, to the recent development in the Middle East that is shaped by the unprecedented rise of the Islamic State. The implications of the findings are unambiguous: The only way to overcome the divide between religions is to improve our attempts at Unlearning Intolerance.

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