Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on Wednesday for Islamic countries to fight the stereotype that the Islamic world harbors terrorism.
Speaking at an Islamic conference in the Kazakh capital, Astana, the 70-year-old president called for Muslim leaders to craft a "positive image of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance."
"It's time to think about setting up a wide-ranging media project in Islamic countries to fight global and regional efforts to discredit the great teaching," he told the seventh World Islamic Economic Forum.
"Isn't the Islamic world the main target of global terrorism? It's in the Muslim countries where thousands of innocent people die every year. Is it fair then to equate Islam with terrorism?" he added.
His speech comes amid fears of revenge attacks in the West following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces last month.
ASTANA, June 8 (RIA Novosti)
