Belgrade, April 27, IRNA – Islam's real face differs greatly from what the Western media portray, as those media do not reflect the realities, Iranian ambassador to Croatia said in the International Conference on Islam and the Media on Monday.

'Although there have been conferences and seminars on Islam and regular dialogue among religions that have to a great extent eliminated the misunderstandings, yet the images and headlines in Western media prove that their journalists' efforts are not aimed at presenting an authentic image of Islam,' said Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian.

He said that the discussions on Islam in the Western media are exclusively on the wrong deeds of some criminals who just pretend to be Muslims.

'Such media broadcast those ugly behaviors in the name of Islam, which is very sad because those media do not refer to the religions of other criminals that commit crimes against the humanity around the globe,' said the Iranian envoy.

Taherian said that such double-standards in broadcasting the news have led to the emergence of a phenomenon called Isamophobia, which is regularly referred to in the Western media under pretext of covering the bloody images of terrorist attacks.

He said that the Western media do not even reflect the Iranian officials' comments on Islam properly.

'Those media take orders from certain circles and safeguard particular interests, which has in some cases led to deviation of realities and reflection of falsehood,' he added.

Presenting a small sample of authentic Islam, Taherian quoted a saying by Prophet Muhammad (P) who says: A pious Muslim is one whose tongue and hands never hurt people.

Taherian said that furthermore, the truly pious Muslim are peace lovers, soft-spoken, and at the service of the mankind, either the Muslims, or the non-Muslims.

By IRNA