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OSCE Conf. Probes Europe's Racism
"Islamophobia is now becoming the central challenge of European countries in the field of discrimination and racism," Doudou Diene, the United Nations' Rapporteur on Racism and Xenophobia told Reuters Thursday, June9 .
CORDOBA, June10 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Fear and discrimination against Muslims have been on the rise in Europe since the September attacks on the United States, with many governments turning a blind eye to the problem, delegates told an international conference on racial and religious intolerance.
Speaking at the conference of the55 -country Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, delegates highlighted that the so-called "war on terror" has tremendously fuelled bias against Muslims.
"Islamophobia is now becoming the central challenge of European countries in the field of discrimination and racism," Doudou Diene, the United Nations' Rapporteur on Racism and Xenophobia told Reuters Thursday, June9 .
Since the9 /11/ 2001deadly attacks, assaults against Muslims and the Islamic places have been tremendously increasing in many European countries.
"Muslim communities have begun to be perceived in some Western countries as 'the enemy within', posing potential threats to the values of Western civilization," Turkish Minister of State Mehmet Aydin told the conference.
The meeting brought together representatives from Europe, North America and Central Asia to discuss the anti-Muslim and anti-Christian discrimination as well as the anti-Semitism.
The Vienna-based OSCE -- which groups countries from Europe, North America and the area of the former Soviet Union -– held the conference in Cordoba because of its heritage of religious tolerance under the Muslim rule from 711 to1236 .
Anti-Muslim Hatred
It was the first time by the OSCE to discuss the issue of Islamophobia in its meeting which was mainly focused to discuss the anti-Semitism, which is also on the rise in Europe.
“Islamophobia has replaced anti-Semitism as the new sharp end of racist issues in the world wherever you go,” Abduljalil Sajid, adviser to the Commission on British Muslims, told the meeting, according to Reuters.
He added that a conclusion of an EU report revealed that "hatred against Muslims and crimes against Muslims increased tremendously" after the September 11 attacks, according to the Scotsman.
Sajid also criticized a draft final statement of the conference for not explicitly using the term Islamophobia, stressing that Europe has no choice but to face the reality that millions of its people are now Muslims.
“Muslims are not going anywhere. They are going to stay,” Sajid said.
A report revealed Monday, July19 ,2004 , that more than nine out of 10 white Britons have no or hardly any Muslim or other ethnic minority friends, raising warnings against growing racial hatred and belief in racist propaganda.
British Muslims have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by the police and stop-and-search operations under the Terrorism Act for no apparent reason other than being Muslims.
New Racism
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference maintained that anti-Muslim hatred represents a new form of racism in Europe.
"The world is witnessing the birth of a new racism in Europe," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said.
Saad Eddine Taib, an OIC delegate stressed that Islamophobia has historic roots but was clearly fuelled by the September 11 attacks.
“We are very worried,” said Taib, adding that September 11 was a crime, which Islam prohibits.
“For Muslims,9 / 11was a dark day in their history,” he said.
The final statement of the meeting, the "Cordoba Declaration", reiterated pledges to collect reliable information on racist crimes and called on member states to legislate against religious, ethnic and sexual discrimination and train their police to implement them.
But some delegates expressed frustration the OSCE failed to live up to promises made at a Berlin conference last year, amid signs discrimination and racism in Europe continued to rise.
"We need to do more to convert these sound words and goodwill to fight anti-Semitism and intolerance into action and its clear a number of states have just not taken that step," New York Governor George Pataki, head of the US delegation, told a news conference.
The OSCE has no powers to force member states to implement its recommendations, besides expelling a country from the group.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted Tuesday, April12 , a resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims in the West.
A recent report released by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) said Muslim minorities across Europe have been experiencing growing distrust, hostility and discrimination since the9 /11/ 2001attacks.
On January13 , UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for halting harassment and discrimination against Muslims, that have been on the rise in the West since the9 / 11attacks.
“Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, many Muslims, particularly in the West, have found themselves the objects of suspicion, harassment and discrimination,” Annan told the seminar on Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding.
“Too many people see Islam as a monolith and as intrinsically opposed to the West,” he said. “Caricature remains widespread and the gulf of ignorance is dangerously deep.”
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-06/10/article01.shtml
Speaking at the conference of the55 -country Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, delegates highlighted that the so-called "war on terror" has tremendously fuelled bias against Muslims.
"Islamophobia is now becoming the central challenge of European countries in the field of discrimination and racism," Doudou Diene, the United Nations' Rapporteur on Racism and Xenophobia told Reuters Thursday, June9 .
Since the9 /11/ 2001deadly attacks, assaults against Muslims and the Islamic places have been tremendously increasing in many European countries.
"Muslim communities have begun to be perceived in some Western countries as 'the enemy within', posing potential threats to the values of Western civilization," Turkish Minister of State Mehmet Aydin told the conference.
The meeting brought together representatives from Europe, North America and Central Asia to discuss the anti-Muslim and anti-Christian discrimination as well as the anti-Semitism.
The Vienna-based OSCE -- which groups countries from Europe, North America and the area of the former Soviet Union -– held the conference in Cordoba because of its heritage of religious tolerance under the Muslim rule from 711 to1236 .
Anti-Muslim Hatred
It was the first time by the OSCE to discuss the issue of Islamophobia in its meeting which was mainly focused to discuss the anti-Semitism, which is also on the rise in Europe.
“Islamophobia has replaced anti-Semitism as the new sharp end of racist issues in the world wherever you go,” Abduljalil Sajid, adviser to the Commission on British Muslims, told the meeting, according to Reuters.
He added that a conclusion of an EU report revealed that "hatred against Muslims and crimes against Muslims increased tremendously" after the September 11 attacks, according to the Scotsman.
Sajid also criticized a draft final statement of the conference for not explicitly using the term Islamophobia, stressing that Europe has no choice but to face the reality that millions of its people are now Muslims.
“Muslims are not going anywhere. They are going to stay,” Sajid said.
A report revealed Monday, July19 ,2004 , that more than nine out of 10 white Britons have no or hardly any Muslim or other ethnic minority friends, raising warnings against growing racial hatred and belief in racist propaganda.
British Muslims have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by the police and stop-and-search operations under the Terrorism Act for no apparent reason other than being Muslims.
New Racism
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference maintained that anti-Muslim hatred represents a new form of racism in Europe.
"The world is witnessing the birth of a new racism in Europe," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said.
Saad Eddine Taib, an OIC delegate stressed that Islamophobia has historic roots but was clearly fuelled by the September 11 attacks.
“We are very worried,” said Taib, adding that September 11 was a crime, which Islam prohibits.
“For Muslims,9 / 11was a dark day in their history,” he said.
The final statement of the meeting, the "Cordoba Declaration", reiterated pledges to collect reliable information on racist crimes and called on member states to legislate against religious, ethnic and sexual discrimination and train their police to implement them.
But some delegates expressed frustration the OSCE failed to live up to promises made at a Berlin conference last year, amid signs discrimination and racism in Europe continued to rise.
"We need to do more to convert these sound words and goodwill to fight anti-Semitism and intolerance into action and its clear a number of states have just not taken that step," New York Governor George Pataki, head of the US delegation, told a news conference.
The OSCE has no powers to force member states to implement its recommendations, besides expelling a country from the group.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted Tuesday, April12 , a resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and Muslims in the West.
A recent report released by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) said Muslim minorities across Europe have been experiencing growing distrust, hostility and discrimination since the9 /11/ 2001attacks.
On January13 , UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for halting harassment and discrimination against Muslims, that have been on the rise in the West since the9 / 11attacks.
“Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, many Muslims, particularly in the West, have found themselves the objects of suspicion, harassment and discrimination,” Annan told the seminar on Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding.
“Too many people see Islam as a monolith and as intrinsically opposed to the West,” he said. “Caricature remains widespread and the gulf of ignorance is dangerously deep.”
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-06/10/article01.shtml
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Delegates from Great Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium demanded the change at the two-day conference, which opened Wednesday. No agreement was reached Wednesday, but a source close to the negotiations said the declaration would probably read in accordance with the demand of the delegates from the three countries.
Before the conference opened, the delegates from the three countries had demanded that the agenda not be limited to anti-Semitism, as the Spanish hosts had originally intended. The three argued that Islamophobia and xenophobia were more serious problems in present-day Europe than anti-Semitism. Subsequently, it was agreed that the first day of the conference would deal with anti-Semitism and the second day with other aspects of racism.
Last year's conference, and a prior one in Vienna, focused exclusively on anti-Semitism.
The U.S. ambassador to the OSCE, Stephan Minikes, said there is "still too much opposition"
within the OSCE to dealing with anti-Semitism and treating it as a separate problem.
Most of the heads of Jewish organizations present left Cordoba shortly after addressing the conference. Israel was represented by Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Sport Michael Melchior and the head of the Foreign Ministry's Diaspora and religions department, Nimrod Barkan.
Kicking off the meeting, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps gives the world an opportunity to renew its fight against all forms of anti-Semitism. "Unfortunately, far from having definitively vaccinated our societies, the experience and memory of the Holocaust have not been enough to eliminate attitudes and manifestations that clearly attack the dignity of Jews," Moratinos said.
Moratinos said that in Medieval times, the southern Spanish city of Cordoba was a flourishing place where adherents of Islam, Judaism and Christianity lived side-by-side in peace. "If in the past, it was possible to live together in harmony, we must not resign ourselves into thinking that it is impossible today, he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/586094.html