ISLAMOPHOBIC SCROUNGERS

We can observe a rapid increase in Islamophobia in Europe over the past years. This is confirmed by the recently published European Islamophobia Report 2020 developed by professors Enes Bayrakli of the Turkish-German (Turkey) University and Farid Hafez of the Georgetown University (USA).

Thirty-seven academics, experts, and public figures from various countries participated in the development of the document, which reflects the situation of Islamophobia in 31 European states in 2020. With the support of a number of international organisations, the report presents a wide range of cases of persecution of European Muslims engaged in various spheres of public and political life and in the media.

In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, anti-Islamic sentiment moved into virtual space. There has also been an increase in attacks on Muslims, especially on women. Thus, European media and politics are increasingly becoming an effective tool in the hands of Islamophobic sympathisers.

Bare facts...

Perhaps the most high-profile attack on Muslims in Europe last year was the murder of nine migrants by a right-wing terrorist in the German city of Hanau. In Denmark, two radicals stopped a Muslim man and expressed their extreme discontent with him not having been deported from the country yet. They then attacked and injured him. In Estonia, unknown men left pig heads in front of the embassies of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Similar cases have also been recorded in several Islamic centres of the country. In France, two women with their heads covered in Muslim style, aged 19 and 40, were stabbed. In the Teuva community in western Finland, locals attacked a young Muslim man and seriously wounded him; perpetrators are yet to be punished.

In addition, a group of unknown men burned a mosque in the village of Vrbovac 40 km from Pristina, Kosovo. In northern Macedonia, another group of locals left an inscription on the wall of a mosque under construction in the town of Bitola: "Hagia Sophia Cathedral was and will remain a church!” In the Serbian municipality of Obrenovac, a man drove his car into a refugee camp shouting hysterically: "I don't want a Muslim state!", "I don't want my girlfriend to be attacked by refugees!" In Spanish Malaga, women attacked another two women with their heads covered, ripped off their headscarves and beat them up.

Remarkably, along with the increasing cases of violence, we can hear Islamophobic statements from an increasing number of European politicians. For example, Ralf Gjoni, an Albanian MP from a former left-wing party, made a comment on population decline and noted that "because of emigration, soon the only people left in Albania will be the elderly, children of criminals and women wearing headscarves.” In Austria, Norbert Hofer, former chairman of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party, declared that "the coronavirus is not as dangerous as the Qur’an". A member of the same party, Harald Wilimski, called for a "Vienna without Mohammed!”

French President Emmanuel Macron is also on the list of Islamophobes of 2020. Commenting on a bill aimed at combating radical Islamist views, Macron said that "Islam around the world is in crisis..." and it "needs to be restructured so that it conforms to the values of the French Republic". Konstantinos Bogdanos, an MP for the ruling New Democracy Party (Greece), was concerned that the Muslim women wearing niqabs, especially in Athens, are alarming and violate women's rights. Polish Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Zebro, called Islam a religion alien to Polish culture, saying the country must be protected from its influence.

In recent years, there have been articles in the European media, which criticised Muslims and Islam in Europe. Thus, articles in the Austrian newspapers Die Presse, Der Standard, Kleinen Zeitung, and Oberösterreichisches Volksblatt condemn Islam mainly for wearing headscarves. As in previous years, mosques have been the target of media criticism in many European countries. There were a series of unfounded statements claiming that the Muslim temples were allegedly the centres of radical Islam and a source of the spread of coronavirus infection.

The popular German newspaper Bild described the crime in Hanau, which led to the deaths of nine Muslims, as an incident that took place in a "criminal zone" and the owner of the cafe (crime scene) as a criminal who used a gun.

At the same time, there were cases of anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim articles and photos published in the media in the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

A similar situation is unfolding in the virtual world as well. In particular, anti-Islamic appeals and articles appeared in various social networks, including Facebook.

In 2020, 901 Islamophobic crimes were recorded in Germany. In 146 of these, the perpetrators targeted mosques and in 48 cases, they attacked the Muslims themselves. The same year saw a number of anti-Islamic actions such as 16 cases organised in Germany by the racist movement PEGIDA. In Austria, 812 hate crimes against Muslims were committed last year. This is more than double the number of cases recorded the year before. In France, 235 anti-Muslim crimes were recorded (154 in 2019). According to the National Human Rights Commission, Islamophobia in the country has increased by 54%.

The number of religiously motivated hate crimes in the UK increased by a third in 2020 (compared to 2019). The victims of half of these crimes were Muslims. According to the study, Muslim families in this country are four times more likely to suffer xenophobic attacks than Christians. It also found that more than half the members of the ruling Conservative Party had a negative view of Islam, while another half saw Islamic countries as a threat to Britain.

Why are they so afraid of migrants?

Undoubtedly, the rise of Islamophobia in Europe is due to a number of reasons. Firstly, it is necessary to mention the objective reasons for this phenomenon. Over the past few years, many migrants have migrated to Europe from various countries—from Africa to South East Asia.

According to a UN report on migration, there were 281 million migrants worldwide in 2020, of whom 89 million are based in Europe. Germany alone, for example, is home to 11.4 million refugees, which is more than 10% of the country's population.

Most of the nearly 90 million refugees is supported by European countries. It is therefore not surprising that Europe's growing social problems, unemployment rates, and prices are causing a storm of resentment against refugees. On the other hand, the large number of refugees generates new concerns and problems.

But all the above phenomena, specifically the negative attitude towards migrants and Muslims in particular, cannot be explained by objective reasons. After all, the alarming figures on the number of migrants only appear to be so. In fact, Europe needs thousands of workers annually, which is provided thanks to migrants. This need is most felt in Germany, a country with a very developed industrial component, whose government has already declared that it need 500,000 migrant workers annually.

Sharp decrease in the number of migrants in 2020 (compared to the previous year), as well as their ‘unwanted’ deportation from Germany, indicate that the current excitement around the problem is unwarranted, given that Europe is able to control the number of migrants whenever it needs so. In other words, the problem is more political, or subjective, if you will. Apparently, the main reason for the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe is the reluctance of Europeans to see Muslims in their countries, regarding them and Islam in general as a threat.

Perhaps Europe is concerned with the unfounded ‘fairy tales’ that by 2050 most of Europe's population will be Muslims. How accurate is this kind of information? Today, for example, Muslims make up less than 10%, or 70 of the 744 million people living in Europe. A large part of Europe's Muslim population (16 million) is from Russia, and half is the indigenous population of the continent—from the European part of Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and Kosovo. Within the EU, France (7 million), Germany (5.5 million), and the UK (4.5 million) have the largest Muslim populations. According to more realistic calculations, by 2050 Muslims could, at best, account for 20% of Europe's population.

Radical scroungers

As we can see, elementary calculations show that even the most pessimistic predictions are not justified and should not cause concern among the European Christians. What does it imply? It simply means the issue is highly politicised. Thus, it is worth mentioning the role of a number of groups of fundamentalist Christians who are actively collaborating and holding common views on this issue.

Amid their own weakening positions, the fundamentalist Christians have failed to invent anything more convincing than to blame Islam and Muslims in all their problems. The objective is to cause fear and panic among the people about the so-called threat of Islam against the Church. This is how they outreach the idea that the growing numbers of Muslims pose a threat to Europe and its Christian values. On the other hand, radical Islamists who fled to Europe also deserve a credit here. By demanding the establishment of Shariah courts in Britain or breaking local laws in France or elsewhere, they become whipping boys successfully used by those who want to portray Islam in an unsightly way as a threat to European society.

The second group fomenting Islamophobic passions in Europe are far-right nationalist organisations and politicians whose rhetoric is teeming with the same arguments and slogans. Stereotypical expressions like "Muslims become a serious threat to Europe", "the Islamic threat is threatening the continent", etc. have long become mantras of the radical right. They willingly repeat them in order to create an image of an external enemy in the eyes of their supporters and voters.

But their actions do not go unanswered. Every move by Europeans against Islam, every such crime or call is an invaluable gift to radical groups operating in Muslim countries. Radical Islamist publications interpret every European action against Muslims and Islam as a new form of crusade and hostility, further exacerbating religious radicalism and terrorism.

It turns out that the organisers of persecutions against Islam and Muslims in Europe and radical religious movements in Muslim countries have common interests. After all, what is the difference between the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s statement made in 1980s-1990s calling for "Jihad against the Crusades" and the calls of the Dutch politician of the 21st century, Geert Wilders, against Islam and Muslims? Such calls from both sides serve only to please those who wish to manipulate the masses.