Islamophobia on rise in Europe, experts claim

[Ferran]

Islamophobia on rise in Europe, experts claim

9 October 2007

JAEN -(AFP) - Islamophobia is on the rise in Europe and governments should do more to protect the continent's 15 million Muslims from discrimination, experts meeting in Spain said Monday.

"The situation is very serious," said Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred.

"Islamophobia is a rising phenomena," added Jasser Auda of Britain's Forum Against Racism and Islamophobia, which is made up of representatives of the British Muslim community.

The two were speaking at a meeting in the southern Spanish city of Jaen of some 30 non-governmental organisations from across Europe.

The gathering was held ahead of the start on Tuesday in the nearby city of Cordoba of a two-day conference on the issue organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Spain currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE, which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention in Europe, North America and Central Asia.

"It is good to attract the attention of governments on the issue, to increase their level of awareness," said Aydin Suer, the spokesman for Femyso, a confederation of Muslim youth groups from 22 European nations.

Participants said there was no easy solution to fighting Islamophobia.

"The problems are complex, the solutions themselves are complex," said Suer. Muslims could not just blame media stereotypes for the problem, he added.

"We Muslims need to question ourselves," he said.

The non-governmental organisations will present a list of recommendations on how to tackle the problem to delegations from the 56 nations that make up the OSCE, and that are set to take part in the Cordoba conference.

"This will be the message from civil society" to the government representatives gathered in Cordoba, said Spain's special ambassador for relations with Muslim communities, Jose Maria Ferre.

Cordoba was chosen as the host for the event because for centuries the city was a symbolic centre of coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

The city hosted an OSCE conference on anti-Semitism in 2005.

[Copyright Expatica]



Source: Islamophobia on rise in Europe, experts claim , Spanish News, Spain, Expatica

[Strengthandhonour]

I wonder why Islamophobia is on the rise..I mean, those guys are so nice and generous that who wouldn't want to welcome them?
this just means prepare for another bombardment of multicultural propaganda.

[Gladstone]

Being that those who advocate multi-culturalism, the very ideology which in no small measure produces the problems discussed at this conference, are the very ones who put this conference together, it's doubtful they are going to get far in resolving things. After all, how can the problem at the root of these things be resolved if it won't or can't be discussed...let alone identitified?

Would a world without multi-culturalism and or it's red and capitalists components be perfect?

No.

Better off?

Yes, most certainly.

[svin]

I hope Mynydd will send them his "greetings" and thoughts about their gahtering.

[Ferran]

Cordoba was chosen as the host for the event because for centuries the city was a symbolic centre of coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

I wonder what they understand by "coexistence"... here's one of the earliest demonstrations of such:

The city of Córdoba was the setting for an unusual historical drama that unfolded between the years 850 and 859, when forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. More striking than the number of executions were the peculiar circumstances surrounding them. For one thing, as the sources unambiguously demonstrate, the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam. Moreover, though some Cordoban Christians applauded the executed Christians as martyrs, others regarded them as self-immolators whose unwarranted outbursts served only to expose the community as a whole to the emirs suspicions.

Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain

[Kernunnos]

Let it rise.

To be afraid of moslems is healthy.

[Aptrgangr]

Originally Posted by Ferran

I wonder what they understand by "coexistence"... here's one of the earliest demonstrations of such

I noticed there is much bias when it comes to Muslims in Spain/Al-Andalus, German news/documentaries are not tired to mention it was a desireable time of peace and mutual understanding.
I found following two articles from overseas that describe how the liberal-demomcrats falisfy history and romanticize Jihad and demonize Crusades.
The real double standard
Jihad begot the Crusades

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

I noticed there is much bias when it comes to Muslims in Spain/Al-Andalus, German news/documentaries are not tired to mention it was a desireable time of peace and mutual understanding.
I found following two articles from overseas that describe how the liberal-demomcrats falisfy history and romanticize Jihad and demonize Crusades.
The real double standard
Jihad begot the Crusades

I cannot source it but it seems the andalucian myth is largely an offspring of nineteenth century french freemasonic, anti-clerical writers.

Sounds pretty coherent.

perhaps Mynnid could add more here.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by svin

I hope Mynydd will send them his "greetings" and thoughts about their gahtering.

While in Jaén they should be taken on a tourist visit to the canyon of Despeñaperros, where legend has it that Moors were hurled down from it after the Battle of Las Navas.

Just as a suggestion and a nice reminder.

Originally Posted by Aptrgangr

I noticed there is much bias when it comes to Muslims in Spain/Al-Andalus, German news/documentaries are not tired to mention it was a desireable time of peace and mutual understanding.

Blame the myth on 19th century Romanticism.

The Fantasy of Al-Andalus

I was going to post another article about the Myth of Al-Andalus by a different author. But even if the author is Spanish, he is also an assistant professor at an American university, and he uses the dismantling of the myth of the convivence in Al-Andalus, to construct another myth which is to put Jews and Christians on an equal foot with regards to Muslim intolerance in Al-Andalus.

Though it is true that the Jews did suffer from persecution in Islamic Al-Andalus, this depended on the period and there were periods where the enjoyed a special status over that of Christian, since they did finance and collaborate in the Islamic invasion.

[Marcus Marulus]

Tolerance and coexistence in Al-Andalus?

From what I read, the rule of Almohads and Almoravids was one among the most intolerant ones in the entire human history.

[Carnyx]

Islamophobia on rise in Europe, experts claim.

Partly intox, IMO. I worry about such claims, especially coming from so called auto-proclaimed "experts".I see no "rise" of it in my everyday life. No more, no less than the usual complaints here and there -or else it is a hidden feeling. What I do see however is Mohammedanism on rise and islamophilia being trendy, yes I do see that.