A/HRC/9/7 page 12 higher learning, in particular the portrayal of Islam as hostile and a menace. It calls on Member States to “direct particular attention towards removing unnecessary legal or administrative obstacles to both the construction of sufficient numbers of appropriate places of worship for the practice of Islam and to its funeral rites”. Recommendation 5 also calls on Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that the freedom to practice religion is fully guaranteed. C. Non-governmental organizations Association of World Citizens 36. The Association of World Citizens underscores the common citizenship of a common world society, and stresses the importance of and need to protect personal belief. The Association notes the importance of religion as an effort to give meaning to the common reality of life and asserts that religion should be a subject of serious study as an important source of motivation and, because of its instrumental value, as a source of common rules and values. The Association refers to its active participation in the long process of negotiations that led to the adoption, in 1981 of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. 37. The Association submits that it has been active in promoting religious tolerance and has called the attention of the Commission on Human Rights, the Subcommission, the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to situations of religious intolerance regarding Bahá’ís and several other minority religions in several countries, such as Buddhists, Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, the Falun Gong, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Mandaeans and Yezidis. Bahá’í International Community 38. The Bahá’í International Community’s submission, entitled “Report on incitement to hatred on religious grounds and defamation of religions targeting the Bahá’í Faith in the Islamic Republic of Iran”, provides information on what it states are “widespread, ongoing incitement to hatred on religious grounds and defamation of the Bahá’í faith” in the media, mosques and elsewhere in the Islamic Republic. The report alleges that incendiary sermons preached by Muslim clergy have roused the local population against members of the Bahá’í community; Bahá’í cemeteries have been defiled and extensively damaged, and graves have been vandalized. In some cases, bodies have been exhumed. It also expresses concern about widespread incitement to hatred against the Bahá’ís and attacks on their homes and property. 39. According to the Bahá’í International Community, defamation has been one of the root causes of an upsurge in attacks on Bahá’ís and their homes and property. It reports that it has recently transmitted detailed information to special procedures on severe and recurring violence against Bahá’ís in many localities throughout the country. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty 40. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty contends that the notion of defamation of religion is fundamentally inconsistent with the founding principles of the United Nations and violates the very foundations of the human rights tradition by protecting ideas rather than the individuals