In many European countries, Islamophobia is on the rise. Incidents such as throwing a pork head, or sometimes even a grenade, into a a mosque, assaulting Muslim women who wear a headscarf, holding demonstrations against building mosques or against supermarkets that sell halal food are happening on a daily basis in several European cities
Recently, the third edition of the European Islamophobia Report (EIR) was published, which corroborated this trend. When the first EIR was presented in 2016 at the European Union Parliament in Brussels, its editors made it clear that their aim was to “analyse trends in the spread of Islamophobia in various European states”. In 2017, 33 countries, including almost all EU member states and other nations such as Russia, Norway and Ukraine, were studied.
In Austria, 256 incidents were documented. In Germany, 100 attacks on mosques occurred, while German Muslims were attacked at least 908 times. In Greater London, the hate crime cases targeting Muslims for the entire year of 2017 increased to 1,204 from 1,678 in the previous year, a 40% rise. In Poland, Muslims were the most targeted group, representing 20% of all hate crime cases. However, not all such incidents have been recorded. There are at least two reasons for that. First, most European states do not record Islamophobic incidents as a separate category of hate crime, which is “essential to uncover the real extent of this problem”, as the report says. Second, only 12% of Muslims who have been discriminated against report their cases to authorities.
Rise of far-right
The authors also tie the rise of Islamophobia to the recent strong-showing of far-right parties all over Europe. “There is no doubt that Islamaphobic discourses have become more established in those countries where right-wing parties have been successful recently,” said Farid Hafez, a senior research scholar at the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, Washington. Mr. Hafez is also one the the two editors of the EIR. According to him, it has become much more easier and acceptable to spread anti-Muslim views during recent years. In 2017, the far-right Alternative for Germany entered the German Bundestag, while the Freedom Party of Austria has become part of the government in Vienna. Other right-wing parties in France, the Netherlands and Italy saw historical results, and all of them have one common enemy — Muslims.
The report reveals how Islamophobia has changed over the last years and has become more established in Europe. “Hatred against Muslims has become something normal, and even many intellectuals share it. You even feel this at the university,” said Mohammad F., a 21-year-old student of Islamic education at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. To him, it is obvious that rising Islamophobia is connected with the rise of far-right parties.
However, what many fail to notice is that Islamophobia is linked with anti-Semitism. “Both go hand in hand and are often shared by similar groups of people. It is also notable how conspiracy theories emerge in both cases and target Muslim and Jews,” said Mr. Hafez. According to him, one of the best examples of that is how Hungarian President Viktor Orbán continues to accuse billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, a Jew of Hungarian origin, of the “Islamisation of Europe” by “controlling masses of refugees”. “Such conspiracy theories have become well established in right-wing elite circles.”
Emran Feroz is a freelance journalist based in Stuttgart
