"The report clearly shows that much work is still ahead of us," said Crickley.

BRUSSELS, November 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Muslim minorities in Europe has been subject to increasing discrimination and violent attacks, EU's racism watchdog said Wednesday, November 23, urging the European countries to do more efforts to combat racism and xenophobia.

"Muslim groups face particularly challenging conditions in many member states," said the Vienna-based European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia in its annual report, reported Agence France Presse (AFP) said.

It said that Muslims in Western Europe have been target of a wave of violent incidents in the wake of the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh.

The 104-page report said that Muslims and mosques in the Netherlands have been under a wave of racist attacks after Van Gogh's killing.

Van Gogh was shot and stabbed by a Moroccan-Dutch after he had written his anti-Islam film "Submission."

Up to 6,000 Dutch people staged a mass rally in the capital Amsterdam in September to say "enough is enough" to the right-wing government for what they called racism and discrimination against minorities.

The report also cited a rise in attacks against the Muslim minority in France in the wake of the Madrid train attacks.

A recent report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) also said that Muslim minorities across Europe have been experiencing growing distrust, hostility and discrimination since the 9/11 attacks.

Work Discrimination

"Candidates with foreign names, in particular Arabic names are consistently excluded from interviews and hence from employment," Winkler said.

The watchdog further said foreigners, especially Arabs, are being denied job opportunities for their ethnic backgrounds.

"Candidates with foreign names, in particular Arabic names are consistently excluded from interviews and hence from employment," Beate Winkler, EUMC Director, told a press conference after presenting the report to the European Parliament in Brussels.

The report said that Roma minorities -- members of a nomadic people originating in northern India -- are most vulnerable to racism since the expansion of the European bloc.

It added the Roma – also known as Gypsies – faced discrimination in employment, housing and education as well as being regular victims of racial violence.

"The particular histories and population characteristics of the new Member States mean that the Roma and people from the former (Soviet Union) are often the targets of racist sentiments and acts."

It said segregation in housing was particularly acute for the Roma population in the Czech Republic, Spain and Hungary.

Roma children were disproportionately concentrated in special education classes in several countries with an over-readiness to label them as educationally disabled or with learning difficulties, the report said.

The report urged European countries to do more efforts to combat racism and xenophobia and end discrimination against minorities.

"The report clearly shows that much work is still ahead of us," said the EUMC chairwoman, Anastasia Crickley.

"We need to speed up the process of integration of minority communities."

The report urged full implementation of EU anti-discrimination laws, national employment strategies to target minorities, more equitable access to education and housing and a crackdown on racist incidents.