Islamophobia started after Cold War ended: experts

[Ferran]

Islamophobia started after Cold War ended: experts

10 October 2007

CORDOBA -(AFP) - Islamophobia gathered pace in the West with the end of the Cold War, long before the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US, participants at a two-day OSCE conference that began in Spain Tuesday said.

"After the end of the Cold War, certain people took Muslims and Islam to be the new scapegoat and enemy," Mustapha Cherif, an expert on Islam at the University of Algiers, told AFP on the sidelines of the gathering.

"But after the senseless act of September 11, this has been amplified," added Cherif, who is known for his commitment to battling religious hatred.

Delegations from the 56 nations that make up the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are taking part in the conference in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba on the topic of intolerance toward Muslims.

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

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa told the gathering that after the end of the Cold War, "conservative extremists in certain Western circles" needed to find a new enemy.

"We can't live in stability and security if some are perceived as first class citizens and others second class citizens. This has to disappear," he added.

Studies by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia have found anti-Muslim behaviour and attitudes have risen since 2001, said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

"Without a doubt, international terrorism has fueled this phenomena," added Moratinos who is chairing the gathering.

Muslims in Europe face discrimination when it comes to employment, education and housing, said Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, the head of research and data collection at the Vienna-based European Fundamental Rights Agency.

"In the area of employment there is evidence that Muslims generally have a higher unemployment rate," he said.

For example in Ireland according to the 2002 census 11 percent of Muslims were unemployed compared to a national average of 4.0 percent, he said.

In Britain the unemployment rate for Muslims, for both men and women, is also higher than that for the general population, especially among those between the ages of 16 and 24, he added.

"In the area of education there is evidence that Muslim pupils tend to have a lower level of education achievement," Dimitrakopoulos added.

The conference will turn its attention Wednesday to possible solutions to the problem of Islamophobia, chiefly in the areas of education and the media.

"The conclusions which will be presented (on Wednesday) will include specific instruments, mechanisms for follow-up and especially a greater sensitization" of the phenomena, said Moratinos.

Cordoba was chosen as the host for the conference as the city, with its eighth century mosque, is a symbolic venue of centuries of coexistence in the Iberian peninsula between Christians, Jews and Muslims.

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

[Copyright Expatica]



Source: Islamophobia started after Cold War ended: experts, Spanish News, Spain, Expatica

[Menydh]

Their victimism is pathetic.

[Savorgnan]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Their victimism is pathetic.

Pathetic as you said. But their victimism won't foul anyone from now on.

[Marulus]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Their victimism is pathetic.

Shouting "anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism" all the time, or shouting "Islamophobia, Islamophobia"...the pattern seems very similar....

[Vinterblot]

Originally Posted by Plethon

Shouting "anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism" all the time, or shouting "Islamophobia, Islamophobia"...the pattern seems very similar....

Ironic, as there is no one more anti-Semitic than the Muslims.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Savorgnan

Pathetic as you said. But their victimism won't foul anyone from now on.

What makes you think so? The abuses and attacks of Islamics against European societies have been ongoing for a long time, and we keep hearing the old same victimist tune once and again. And things only get worse.

Worse, there is an undeniable and perverted connivance between Socialists and Islamics, at least over here. At the same time that the Socialists are pursuing a fierce and vicious campaign against native Christianity (Roman Catholic here), they lever the power of the Islamic associations.

The Islamo-Socialist alliance is much of a reality.

[wilpuri]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

The Islamo-Socialist alliance is much of a reality.

I think the Belgian socialists have taken this to the extreme, passing laws giving immigrants the right to vote earlier, and as most immigrants are Muslim and Muslims vote overwhelmingly Socialist, this was a way to bar Vlaams Belang from power. They admitted it.

[Marulus]

Originally Posted by Vinterblot

Ironic, as there is no one more anti-Semitic than the Muslims.

What do you mean? How could Muslims be anti-Semitic? And especially: how could Arabs be anti-Semites? Because that would mean self hatred (Arabs being Semites themselves).

[svin]

Anti-Jewish is more correct word.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by svin

Anti-Jewish is more correct word.

True. The term anti-Semitic should be dumped for several reasons. I'd prefer the terms "Jew-aware" or "Jew-wise".

[Menydh]

Nah, the word anti-semitic is actually fine. Think about it. Both Arabs and Jews are Semitics. And both hate each other and are, subsequently, anti-Semitic.

Self-hatred? I wouldn't say that. It's more some form of Cainism, hatred for your brother.

[Marulus]

It is funny how many common people today, due to the mediatic noise created by the conflict in Israel-Palestine, and due to lack of historical knowledge and perspective, tend to forget that Jews and Muslims got with each other quite fine throughout most of the history. Uninformed people today believe that Jews and Muslims are natural enemies and have been that since time out of mind.

But the reality is very different: during most of the history Jews always preferred living under Muslim to living under Christian rule, they even, according to Talmud and several other commentaries, considered Muslims to be religiously less "impure" than the Christians, because of not believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ and in the Holy Trinity.

The only serious theological contention between Jews and Muslims was that about Jesus (Isa), whom Jews reject totally and consider to be a vile creature, while Muslims honour him as one of the greatest messengers of God in the history of mankind and as the only man ever born from a virgin. The other dispute is that on Muhammad, whom Jews don't recognize as any kind of prophet and/or messenger.

Jews preferring Muslims to Christians and considering Islam to be a lesser evil than Christianity was a commonplace in European history.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Nah, the word anti-semitic is actually fine. Think about it. Both Arabs and Jews are Semitics. And both hate each other and are, subsequently, anti-Semitic.

Self-hatred? I wouldn't say that. It's more some form of Cainism, hatred for your brother.

Thats hatred for the competition: to the throne of the only rightful semitic religion.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Nah, the word anti-semitic is actually fine. Think about it. Both Arabs and Jews are Semitics. And both hate each other and are, subsequently, anti-Semitic.

Self-hatred? I wouldn't say that. It's more some form of Cainism, hatred for your brother.

You're right, of course. I find it really annoying when people constantly try to invent new words. I would add though that the east European Jews seem to be at the very least a mixed breed. Many of them don't look anything like the natives of Lebanon, Syria or Palestine.

Here's a very interesting recent post by Prof. Kevin McDonald on the cultural differences between these "Ostjuden" and the Jews native to Syria:

Kevin MacDonald Blog