We live in a time of extraordinary flux, when information can be accessed and disseminated at the speed of light in order to elevate mankind, to blow the whistle or to spark a revolution. Never has so much learning been available at the click of a mouse, and never has there been such overwhelming power wielded by those able to shape the messages we receive. But this flow of information hides an ugly reality.

Today, despite decades of learning built around an increasingly mixed religious and cultural heritage, and after a millennia of engagement, involvement and close contact, 74% of the British public claim that they know "nothing or next to nothing about Islam," and furthermore, 64% of the British public claim that what they do know is acquired solely through the media. As concerning as this yawning gap in education and sense of our shared humanity might be, it points to an even more significant issue: there seems to be little idea of who we are as a society and what might be the future of our life together. For it is surely now beyond dispute that Muslims living in Britain are the most discriminated against of all social groups, and that discriminatory treatment has reached epidemic levels.

The word "Islamophobia" entered the popular lexicon most prominently after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, though its widespread usage dates back at least to the 1980s, denoting "the prejudice against, dread, hatred or irrational fear of Islam and by extension the fear and dislike of all or most Muslims." It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and represents a violent political ideology. The seminal 1997 report by the Runnymede Trust also referred to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by exclusion from economic, social, and public life of the nation.

There are five myths about Islam which comprise Islamophobia:

Immovability : it is a gigantic, monolithic bloc unresponsive to change.

: it is a gigantic, monolithic bloc unresponsive to change. Separation : it is the "other," lacking values in common with other cultures, and it can neither be affected by them nor in turn influence them.

: it is the "other," lacking values in common with other cultures, and it can neither be affected by them nor in turn influence them. Inferiority : compared to the West, it is barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist.

: compared to the West, it is barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist. Violent : it is aggressive, threatening and supportive of terrorism.

: it is aggressive, threatening and supportive of terrorism. Political: it is an ideology used for political or military advantage.

These five myths are accompanied by three recognisable Islamophobic behaviours:

Silencing : criticisms made by Muslims of "the West" are rejected out of hand, even though they may be well founded.

: criticisms made by Muslims of "the West" are rejected out of hand, even though they may be well founded. Hostility : negativity towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.

: negativity towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society. Normalisation: anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural, normal and even recommended.

According to Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, over the last decade or so anti-Muslim discourse in Britain has become seen as respectable, and hostility towards Islam and Muslims is increasingly accepted as in some sense normal.

It is taken some time, but Islamophobia has at last become internationally recognised as a form of intolerance akin to anti-Semitism. Academics are now openly commenting on the similarities between Islamophobic discourse and European pre-Nazi anti-Semitism. For instance, Cora Doving from the Norwegian Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities outlines ten rhetorical arguments:

The takeover - a minority will overrun Western countries through international underground networks and high birth-rates, and existing minorities will act as a "fifth column." Institutions at risk - the key institutions and convictions of Western society (such as the Church, the family, the monarchy, secular society, freedom of the individual, gender equality within the family) are somehow at risk. The naive left - those left wing policies aimed at integration are hopelessly naive and ultimately masochistic. Hate commanded by God - the minority is portrayed as unable to draw a distinction between religious identity and the real world. The minority's religious identity is essential and universal, or always the most prominent. Minority religions are claimed to be exclusionist and inherently political. The sexualized man - there is an obsession with gender, essentializing sexual crime and the minority's inability to adapt to the mainstream ideals of manhood. Treatment of women and children - for that minority, children's education is unimportant and women are portrayed as passive passengers who cannot think for themselves. Using history - negative incidents in the minority's history are linked to present-day practices, while one's own history is portrayed as a result of contrasting positive achievements, commonly involving major distortions. Lack of will to integrate - integration is dismissed as impossible, bolstered by fuelling fears of enforced intra-cultural marriage and the creation of parallel societies. Absence of humanism - the minority is deemed intractably irrational, calculating and manipulative; The cultural and intellectual achievements of the minority are downplayed or else ignored altogether. Something must be done - control over culture must be regained, and laws that limit freedoms of specific groups must be passed (paradoxically, in the name of the defence of Western freedoms).

Admittedly, rhetoric can often be harmless and the preserve of academics and commentary. But when such rhetoric resonates with the daily reality on the ground of alienation, marginalisation, discrimination and physical attack, then we face a broader societal problem and something significantly more serious. I would argue that the reality of Islamophobic rhetoric and actual anti-Muslim prejudice has resulted in a tangible civil rights crisis for Muslim communities - not just within the UK, but throughout the Western world.

In the UK, the largest and oldest Muslim communities are comprised of immigrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and their British-born children and grandchildren. Almost 80% of these households are either on or below the poverty line, compared to only 20% of white British households. Muslims consistently suffer higher levels of unfair treatment than other religious groups, and face more unfair treatment in all aspects of services provided by local government. White European Muslim converts experience more mistreatment and prejudice proportionately than Muslims from any other ethnic background.

When it comes to education, Muslims perform less well in schools. A third of all British Muslims of working age have no qualifications and young Muslims are more likely to be unemployed than any other group. On leaving school, they are more vulnerable to job losses and cuts to services. A report backed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that there is now record levels of discrimination against Muslims in employment, and the unemployment rate for British Muslims is approaching 20% compared to the 8% national average.

While it is important not simply to disregard the real fears that exist in the minds of many about Islam and Muslims, it is an inherent hatred and even an irrationality that fuels Islamophobia. Consider, for example, the oft expressed believe - a favourite of certain right wing politicians and media commentators - that "all Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." In reality, we know the truth to be quite different. Europol surveys state 99.6% of terrorism in Europe is not committed by Muslims. But even taken within a purely historical context, historian De Lacy O'Leary insists:

"History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated."

And while other polls have claimed that 99% of all media reports on Islam and Muslims are negative or overwhelmingly negative, Unitas has gone further. In a submission to the Leveson Inquiry, Unitas' Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed writes that:

"the predominant narratives about Muslims in our media are overwhelmingly negative, inaccurate and racist. But also that this has had a devastating social impact, undermining community cohesion and contributing to a dramatic rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes."

Despite this, it appears Muslims are often more British than the British. Recent research shows that Muslims are more proud to be British citizens than the general public and feel they "belong" in Britain slightly more than British Christians do. Contrast that with the following statistics:

47% of Britons see Muslims as a threat;

28% believe Muslims want to integrate into British society;

52% believe that Muslims create problems;

45% admit that they think there are "too many" Muslims in Britain;

55% would be concerned if a mosque was built in their area; and

58% associate Islam with extremism.

If one considers such widespread perceptions, coupled with the rise in attacks on Muslims, violence, street crime and the proliferation of far right movements both in the UK and across Europe, and placed in the context of an economic depression the likes of which have not been seen since the 1930s, and it isn't hard to discern chilling similarities with a dark and recent chapter in European history.

It is thus most welcome that politicians and academics have come together, through initiatives like the joint All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia and Education, to look at the role subjects like history can play in combating anti-Muslim prejudice. The fair representation of Islam and of Muslim contribution are desperately needed within the educational context, and it is now widely accepted that a clear strategy must be in place to identify and tackle the growth of Islamophobic sentiment. This represents a multi-phase process which must include both a willingness robustly to challenge misinformation about Islam and Muslims, and a willingness to embrace recommendations for new "social, moral, spiritual and cultural" guidelines, vital for any inclusive academic setting.

Furthermore, a review of subjects across curricula is needed, to allow for a fair representation of the contribution of Islam and Muslims where appropriate - something currently, and notably, absent. So, for example, it has been a long-held tradition in the West to privilege classicism and Aristotelianism, while the natural and arguably closer links to scientia and a near-Islamic history go almost completely unacknowledged. As Cambridge theologian and historian Tim Winter argues, "Islam was for much of its history the principal heir of Hellenism, geographically and intellectually." But as long as our schools ignore the place of Islam in world history and as a vital component of European Enlightenment, Renaissance and indeed of contemporary society itself, we will continue to feed the perception gap where adults cannot help but see Muslims and Islam as utterly "other."

Western civilisation owes a huge debt of honour and gratitude to Muslims and to an Islamic history that we have all but redacted from public consciousness. The unparalleled contribution of Islam to science, philosophy, algebra, chemistry, physics, geography, navigation, medicine, pharmacology, cartography and much more besides, is something which has long been recognised by academics. Take Robert Briffault, who claimed that Europe owes "everything" of its progress to the golden age of Islam; or even H.A.R. Gibb, who wrote in his 1932 book Whither Islam:

"But Islam has a still further service to render to the cause of humanity. It stands after all nearer to the real East than Europe does, and it possesses a magnificent tradition of inter-racial understanding and cooperation. No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity, and of endeavours so many and so various races of mankind ... Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of East and West is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition. In its hands lies very largely the solution of the problem with which Europe is faced in its relation with the East. If they unite, the hope of a peaceful issue is immeasurably enhanced. But if Europe, by rejecting the cooperation of Islam, throws it into the arms of its rivals, the issue can only be disastrous for both."

Whether we can now stem the tide of Islamophobia remains to be seen, but there remains an opportunity for those of good faith to work towards a society of tolerance and understanding. The role of education has never been more crucial with the weight of history bearing down upon us to do what, essentially, each generation is charged to do: to leave the world in a better state than in which we found it.

Mohammed Ansar is a theologian, lecturer and social commentator. He tours extensively and works in the areas of education, equalities and interfaith. An outspoken advocate on Islamophobia, hate crime and civil rights, he is a regular contributor to television and radio.