A/HRC/9/12 page 9 21. The rise of Islamophobia is reflected in the adoption of national policies and laws characterized by the social and political stigmatization of Muslim minorities, religious profiling and security targeting. These policies are legitimatized by a conception of identity that excludes Islam, by the electoral success of overtly Islamophobe political platforms, by the rise of ideological secularism among elites suspicious of all forms of religious expression, and by an approach to immigration geared to questions of security and ethnic origin. 22. This is the context for various forms of discrimination and intolerance towards Muslims, including individual acts of physical and verbal violence, recourse to stereotypes and stigmatization, institutionalized discrimination and the appearance of direct or indirect incitement to religious hatred. Freedom of religion is also directly affected. In his previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has noted that “Muslims are finding it increasingly difficult to establish places of worship and observe their religious practices (eating habits, funeral rites). Against this background, political parties with openly anti-Islamic platforms have in a number of countries joined government coalitions and begun to implement their agendas. In other words Islamophobia is in the process of pervading all aspects of social life.” 23. Islamophobia likewise represents a powerful trend in ideological and intellectual terms. It has become the substitute ideology for a number of Cold War theoreticians. Its two main intellectual components are identification of Islam with violence and terrorism, and the inevitability of a conflict of civilizations and religions. The influence of this intellectual basis of Islamophobia, as well as its popular impact, stems from various propagandist strategies. The exploitation of freedom of expression is a particularly effective weapon in justifying and promoting an ideological, selective and hierarchical interpretation of fundamental human rights, ignoring the restrictions and limitations embodied in articles 18, 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular the crucial restriction of non-incitement to racial and religious hatred. The development and propagation of these notions by the media has the effect of rooting Islamophobia in the collective unconscious. Their exploitation of these concepts as political capital for electoral purposes banalizes Islamophobia. The electoral success of these platforms as effective strategies for combating terrorism and defending national identity and security not only makes Islamophobia common place but also, more seriously, lends it democratic legitimacy, enabling its proponents to put it into practice through participation in government coalitions. The most recent example of this intellectual construction of Islamophobia, typically the product of a Cold War ideologue, is the work by Norman Podhoretz, founder of the highly influential review Commentary, entitled World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (2007). This work represents a theoretical formulation of Islamophobia, identifying a religion - Islam - with a political ideology of European origin - fascism - thereby lending credibility and substance to Samuel Huntington’s thesis of the inevitable clash of civilizations, seen in terms of the opposition between Islam and the West, and anticipating its outcome in the form of World War IV. These two rhetorical concepts - the clash of civilizations and Islamofascism - are gaining intellectual, media and political currency in an increasing number of influential circles. 24. In his previous report on the defamation of religions (A/HRC/6/6), the Special Rapporteur analysed the main forms and manifestations of Islamophobia. He noted in particular the tendency to downplay the Islamophobe character of individual acts of discrimination, such as Muslim