There’s a social pandemic poisoning Europe: hatred of Muslims
2020/10/01 4 Comments
Of note:
Rarely does the EU act so swiftly. Less than four months since the killing of George Floyd in police custody and the Black Lives Matter campaign that spilled into Europe and galvanised continent-wide protests, the EU is appointing its first ever anti-racism coordinator.This brilliant idea will make little sense, however, if anti-Muslim hatred is not part of their portfolio. Because instead of building a “truly anti-racist union”, as the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, would wish, we have so far built an anti-Muslim one.
Prejudice against Muslims exists in every corner of Europe. Not only do we collectively devalue and discriminate against Europeans who follow Islam, but the incidence of violence against Muslims is increasing.
We have known since the refugee and migration crisis of 2015 and the jihadist terrorist attacks in France, Spain and Germany that Muslims suffer from an exceptionally bad reputation in our societies. In 2019, research conducted for the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion Monitor yet again confirmed widespread mistrust towards Muslims across Europe. In Germany and Switzerland, every second respondent said they perceived Islam as a threat. In the UK, two in five share this perception. In Spain and France, about 60% think Islam is incompatible with the “west”. In Austria, one in three doesn’t want to have Muslim neighbours.
Source: There’s a social pandemic poisoning Europe: hatred of Muslims
About Andrew
Islam is a religion, not a race.
Correct. But there is a fair amount of conflation of the two and with respect to the article, doesn’t really affect the substance of the issues.
Agreed. But our politicians and courts must firmly resist any attempt to conflate criticism of Islam with hostility to Muslims as people. They are not the same thing.
No, they are not, similar to antisemitism being distinct from criticism of Israeli government policies, or criticism of Catholicism versus hostility to Christians.