Muslims 'dehumanised' warns Qatar's Sheikha Moza

"Why do Muslim lives seem to matter less than the lives of others?" asked Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in a speech at Oxford University on Tuesday.

The division between east and west was creating a "fear and suspicion of all things Islamic", she said.

Sheikha Moza also warned against "violent repression" in the Arab world.

Widely seen as one of the most influential women in the Middle East, Sheikha Moza warned an audience at Oxford University of the dangers of negative stereotypes in the West.

And the failure of progressive politics in the Middle East was fuelling "distorted and perverted" interpretations of Islam, she added.

'Muslim-phobia'

Speaking at the opening of the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, Sheikha Moza warned that while there was an "intellectual curiosity" in the West about Islamic culture, individual "real, living Muslims" faced growing distrust.

She described this as being "Muslim-phobia", as distinct from claims of "Islamophobia".

And she questioned whether globalisation was really achieving more "pluralistic" societies.

"A Muslim is first and foremost identified as a Muslim, rather than simply a human being.

"Whether they are Pakistani, Malaysian, Senegalese, or even British born, their multiple identities are levelled under a constructed monolith of Islam," she said.

This collective identity was seen as something "fearful and unknowable", said Sheikha Moza, mother of the current Emir of Qatar and wife of the previous ruler.

The consequence was "double standards" in the reaction to the casualties of conflict, said Sheikha Moza, a senior political figure in the oil and gas-rich Gulf state.

"Only silence follows when innocent Yemeni and Pakistani children and civilians," are killed by drones, she said.

She challenged the increasing use of the word "medieval" to describe the actions of radicals in the Middle East.

"Global media, both western and Arab, often claim that Islam does not believe in freedom of expression and is stuck in medieval times," said Sheikha Moza.

'Isis is as modern as Guantanamo'

But she said it was a failure of "our collective responsibility" not to admit that the violence of groups such as the so-called Islamic State were the result of our own modern era.

"Isis is as modern as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. They are all products of our age."