Charles Groenhuijsen (anchor and reporter, NOS News): This is truly a very special occasion, a very special meeting. This is not just about our professional life. This is not just about, for example, the question of how you should cover 24-hour news or how you should cover the hole in the ozone layer. The stuff that we'll be talking about this afternoon is very much about our profession and our personal lives. This is also about the question of whether we and our children will live in a safer world. This is about dialogue and respect and understanding.

We'll start out with some kind of diagnosis: Where are we right now? What changed in the past five years when it comes to covering Islam from the West, and the other way around as well? Then we'll look at a couple of examples of what's going on. And in the latter part of the debate, we'll talk about the future: What can we improve, to increase understanding and respect? Let's start out with a video presentation about a big survey done on Western perceptions of Islam and Muslims.

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[Videotape: Western Perceptions of Islam and Muslims; study commissioned by the State of Kuwait, Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs]

Narrator : A religion and its followers, misunderstood in a time of violence and suspicion. A recent survey reveals that the overwhelming perception of Islam and Muslims is a fearful one. And the fear is growing.

Look at the words. When asked which ones they associate with Muslims, people surveyed responded with these stereotypes: terrorist, anti-American, anti-modern, anti-women's rights, anti-democracy.

Akbar Ahmed (chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington): When the West looks at the Muslim world, it's three main contemporary comments about the Muslim world are, No. 1: there is no democracy; No. 2: the treatment of women; and No. 3: the sense of anarchy, the sense of intolerance to minorities - Christians, Hindus, whatever.

Narrator : How the West looks at the Muslim world is through the eyes of its media. That vision is often dark.

John Esposito (director, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington): If you want to pull in an audience, you talk about that which is explosive, that which is threatening. You don't talk about the everyday home life of a Muslim. And, as a result, in both Europe and America, it means that the broader audience is very influenced by movies and television programs and documentaries that emphasise the dark side of religion.

Narrator : And when extremists strike at home - in New York on 9/11; in the Netherlands, when documentary filmmaker Theo van Gogh is murdered - the dark side of religion dominates reactions.

One searing number: 49 per cent of those asked think Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. In the U.S., 48 per cent believe that; in France, 42 per cent; in the Netherlands, 56 per cent; and in Germany, 57 per cent. And when Muslim neighbours become extremists and walk into tube trains and buses to blow up themselves and others, as happened on July 7 in London, the reaction is strong and negative. In March [2005], 46 per cent of Britons surveyed agreed that Islam was more likely to promote violence; in September, that had jumped to 56 per cent.

Tudor Lomas (Jemstone Network): It was a big event. It was a bomb. It was a series of bombs. It's something that doesn't happen in Britain. It was covered as a news event in its own right, and so it should be. But the images that stay in people's minds - that's what matters. It's the top blown off the bus; it's the bodies lying around; it's the emotional image of being in that railway carriage in the dark. And liquid - is it blood? Those images stay with people for a very, very long time. The media have to cover that; they have to pass those images on. That is what happened. People then need to start asking: Why?

Narrator : There are, of course, less corrosive stereotypes associated with Islam. People surveyed also responded with words like: veiled women (73 per cent), mosques (78 per cent), imams or holy men (41 per cent) and devoted observers of their faith (68 per cent). But both these benign images and the harsher vision flow from lack of knowledge: 44 per cent said they had little or no knowledge of Islam. The combined figure in the U.S. was 50 per cent; in Germany, 44 per cent; in the U.K., 47 per cent; in France, 51 per cent.

The only exception to this was the Netherlands, where just 19 per cent said they had little or no knowledge [of Islam]. That was the lowest of the five countries. But more knowledge does not equate with more sympathy: 39 per cent of the Dutch said they had a somewhat unfavourable or a very unfavourable opinion of Islam. That was the highest in the five countries. Negative opinions grow from a generation of violent events and images. The headlines have been unrelenting: uprisings, suicide bombings, kidnappings.

John Esposito : How do Americans engage Islam? They engaged it through the Iranian revolution. They saw people shouting, "Death to America." And then they engaged it subsequent to that through the actions of terrorists, hijackings, et cetera - again, committed by a small minority of Muslims. But the reality of it is, if you don't have a context within which to place that, this is what you see.

Narrator : The respondents said personal experience and the media led the way in shaping their views on Islam and Muslims. [Personal experience: 38 per cent; views of friends: 18 per cent; media: 35 per cent; religions beliefs: 27 per cent.] Within the media, they said documentaries and TV news were the most important sources [documentaries and specials: 47 per cent; TV news: 41 per cent] followed by newspapers [36 per cent].

The media may shape their views, but people were also very suspicious of the portrayal they see and read. Almost three-quarters said the media did not accurately depict Islam and Muslims at least half the time. [Accuracy - all the time: 2 per cent; most of the time: 23 per cent; half the time: 40 per cent; not often: 31 per cent; never: 3 per cent.]

Laila Al-Qatami (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Washington): If I ran a television station, not just a news station, I'd like to see programming that features Arabs and Muslims in ordinary, average roles, as they are here in the United States - doctors, lawyers, journalists, you name it - they're all there. Usually when I'm seeing portrayals of Arabs and Muslims, they have no identity beyond that. They have no profession; they're usually "a terrorist." A woman is not empowered, can't do anything for herself, is a stereotype. I'd like to see that just being broken down, to humanise Arabs and Muslims.

Narrator : Two worlds in collision. Fear and anger in the Muslim world feed more fear and anger in Europe and North America. And in the middle: the media. The normal world of Muslims and their religion is simply erased in the images of violence.

Akbar Ahmed : I think the Western media's interpretation and projection of Islam - these have been tragic. I use the word tragic because the Western media has the power. These are global giants. They can affect millions of people. Through images, they can build up a picture. They can move civilisations in one direction and another direction. And they have, it appears, abdicated this huge responsibility, and they've simply added fuel to the fire.

Narrator : The survey underlines that violence feeds fear, deepens misunderstanding and reinforces stereotypes. The media, for the moment, are surfing on those emotions.