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The report said that attacks against minorities in Europe, especially Muslims, increased in the months following the 9/11 attacks.
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CAIRO,
April 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The European countries have
failed to confront the scale of violence and discrimination against
racial minorities and have been complacent in collecting information
on the extent and nature of racist violence in their societies,
according to a European report Thursday, April 14.
The
European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia said racist
attacks have been picking up speed and intensity, remarkably against
Muslims, North Africans, immigrants from the former Yugoslavia,
refugees, asylum-seekers and the Jews, according to British daily The
Independent, citing the report.
“There
was clear evidence that attacks on Muslim communities increased in the
months following 11 September and some victims were wrongly identified
as Muslims.”
“As
a case in point, media and NGO reports in Britain “indicate some
evidence of increased violence directed at people who are or are
presumed to be Muslim,” the report said.
Another
report
revealed Monday, July 19, 2004, that more than nine out of 10 white
Britons have no or hardly any Muslim or other ethnic minority friends,
raising warnings against growing racial hatred and belief in racist
propaganda.
British
Muslims have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by the police and
stop-and-search operations under the Terrorism Act for no apparent
reason other than being Muslims.
The
United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted Tuesday, April 12, a
resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam
and Muslims in the West.
Little
Record-keeping
The
European countries have also been complacent in drawing up an
effective policy to collect information on the racist violence in
their societies, the report said.
“Most
of the 10 countries that joined the European Union (EU) last year have
little record-keeping and in the EU as a whole, “no two countries
have data that is strictly comparable,” the report said.
Greece,
Italy and Portugal have no official criminal justice date on racist
violence and Spain released only limited data for 2001, the report
maintained.
“If
you are not collecting data, it seems that you do not have a problem.
My message to those governments is to give a clear lead, take the
problem seriously and face reality,” Beate Winkler, the center
director, said.
A
recent report released by
the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) said
Muslim minorities across Europe have been experiencing growing
distrust, hostility and discrimination since the 9/11/2001 attacks.
On
January 13, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for halting
harassment and discrimination against Muslims, that have been on the
rise in the West since the 9/11 attacks.
“Since
the September 11 attacks on the United States, many Muslims,
particularly in the West, have found themselves the objects of
suspicion, harassment and discrimination,” Annan told the seminar on
Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding.
“Too
many people see Islam as a monolith and as intrinsically opposed to
the West,” he said. “Caricature remains widespread and the gulf of
ignorance is dangerously deep.”
