Muslim activists, including award-wining British journalist Yvonne Ridley, are planning an international one-day conference for journalists in Denmark next March. The conference aims to address the ignorant and inflammatory portrayal of Islam in the media, raise awareness as well as help the Muslim minority in Denmark by providing them with support, Fadel Soliman, head of the Bridges Foundation, the organizer, told IslamOnline.net. He said the ongoing uproar surrounding the publishing of cartoons insulting Prophet Muhammad underline the need for such a conference. ”The cartoons are becoming worse, as if someone is trying to provoke the Muslim community and youth to do something crazy.” Twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings appeared in Denmark `s largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30. In one of the drawings, an image assumed to be that of the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head. The images, considered blasphemous under Islam, have drawn rebuke from the Muslim minority and triggered a diplomatic crisis between Denmark and Arab and Muslim countries. Bridges Foundation has been getting requests for help from Muslim communities all over the world, Soliman said. He added that after the Denmark conference, they will start planning for another conference in Australia . This coming conference, Ms. Ridley told IOL, ”can be a turning point if it succeeds in getting non-Muslim journalists covering Islam and Muslims objectively. It will be the start of a big thing.” Ms. Ridley, meanwhile, lamented the way journalism is seen by many Muslims. ”Unfortunately, journalists are seen as an extension of government propaganda or are easily bribed, in the Muslim world. ”The Muslim community tends to keep a distance from journalists and the media, and this backfires. Media is a powerful tool and we [Muslims] have to learn how to use it.”