The UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan used Scottish poet Robert Burns' prayer for brotherhood last night to plead for an end to bigotry especially against Muslims and Jews.
Delivering the inaugural Robert Burns Memorial Lecture, Mr Annan noted that the poet was not only an advocate for political and social change but a champion for the poor and above all for a world where all people live together in peace.
In Burns' poem, "A Man's A Man for A' That," he prayed "That man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that."
But Mr Annan said prejudice remains widespread, especially against Muslims and Jews.
"One of the most disturbing manifestations of bigotry today is Islamophobia a new word for an old phenomenon," he said.
Since the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, many Muslims especially in the West have become "the objects of suspicion, harassment and discrimination," Annan said.
Similarly, Annan called anti-Semitism "another dangerous hatred (that) blights our world."
"The recent upsurge of attacks on Jews, synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish targets in Europe, Turkey and elsewhere, show this hatred to be, not just the stuff of history, but virulent still," he said.