Brussels, 25/07/2012 (Agence Europe) -“Muslims in Europe want to interact with other Europeans and participate as full and equal members of society, but regularly face various forms of prejudice, discrimination and violence that reinforce their social exclusion.” This was stated in Strasbourg on 24 July by the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Nils Muiznieks, in a new publication. This note is based more specifically on research carried out on the subject by a number of NGOs, the Council of Europe explains in a press release.
“Unfortunately, commentators on the Arab Spring missed the historic opportunity to deconstruct harmful stereotypes about the alleged incompatibility of Islam and democracy, instead exaggerating the risk of migration to Europe”, the commissioner added.
According to the Council of Europe, Muslims have become the primary “other” in right-wing populist discourse in Europe. “Political parties in Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland have employed anti-Muslim rhetoric for political gain. Politicians frequently refer to Muslims when discussing the alleged 'failure of multiculturalism'. However, multiculturalism as a strategy of promoting intercultural dialogue while at the same time preserving cultural identities has hardly been tried in most countries”, said Muiznieks.
Muslims are also targeted by restrictive laws and policies, the commissioner continued. “Some mainstream parties have exploited anti-Muslim sentiment by supporting restrictive legislative measures that target Muslims. Since 2011 Belgium and France have enacted laws subjecting women who wear full face veils to fines or 'citizenship training'. In Italy, some local authorities have resorted to an old anti-terrorist law against concealing the face for security reasons to punish women with full-face veils. Similar initiatives have been discussed in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland”, the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner continued.
A recent study by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (FRA) revealed that in the EU, one out of every three Muslims have been the victim of discrimination in the last 12 months, with young people the most affected, the press release states, particularly in police checks. “A particularly pernicious form of discrimination is when police, customs or border guards engage in ethnic or religious profiling against Muslims by stopping them only because of their appearance. The aforementioned FRA study found that 1 in 4 Muslim respondents were stopped by the police in the previous year, while more than a third had been stopped by customs or border control”, says the Council of Europe.
The commissioner argues that government must stop targeting Muslims through legislation or policy, and ban discrimination based on religion or belief in all areas.
They should also allow monitoring centres and independent equality bodies to investigate complaints, give the victims legal advice and represent them before the law, and also take part in creating policies. (SP/transl.fl)