EU Conference Warns About Rise of Islamophobia in Europe
"Anti-Muslim incidents are multiplying across Europe. We're seeing a huge spike of attacks. The rise of islamophobia is the one of the biggest challenges in Europe," Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans told a conference on fundamental rights in Brussels this evening.
"When you know about European history, you know that the darker, uglier forces in our societies always turn first against minorities. Always turn first against Jews," he noted.
"We have seen the homes of asylum seekers set on fire. And we have heard political leaders declare that their countries would not accept refugees if they were Muslim," said Timmermans a former Dutch foreign minister.
He said the EU's executive body decided to devote this first Colloquium titled "Tolerance and respect: preventing and combating anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred in Europe," to raise European public awareness of this serious problem.
"Europe is going through a period of crisis and turmoil, which is challenging the very values on which it was built. If we don't get this right, I truly believe Europe will not remain the Europe we built. Europe will not remain a place of peace and freedom, for very long," he warned.
Timmermans said he has decided to designate within the European Commission two coordinators with specific responsibility relating one to anti-Semitism and the other, to Islamophobia.
On her part, EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova , said one in five people in the EU from a religious minority say they have experienced discrimination or harassment on the grounds of religion or beliefs in the past 12 months. "This is unacceptable. I call upon EU Member States to properly apply European legislation and take action against racist and xenophobic hate speech and hate crime. This Colloquium is about sharing concrete experiences and ideas from across the EU, and deciding how we will move forward together," she said.
Several Muslim and Jewish participants in the conference related their personal experiences of attacks and abuses that they face in Europe on a daily basis.
Participants at the 2-day conference include members of the Jewish and Muslim communities, national and local authorities, NGOs, companies, media representatives and individuals.
They will exchange ideas and thoughts on how to fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred and discuss steps for further action.
Meanwhile, the European Commission Thursday published statistics which showed that 50 percent of Europeans believe discrimination based on religion or beliefs is widespread.
33 percent believe that expressing a religious belief can be a disadvantage when applying for a job.
It showed that Muslims suffer from the lowest levels of social acceptance among religious groups, with only 61 percent of respondents stating that they would be fully comfortable with a colleague at work being Muslim, and only 43 percent being fully comfortable if their adult children had a relationship with a Muslim person.
Source: KUNA
