VIENNA,
April 8, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – The head of the EU's racism
observatory on Saturday, April 8, told the second conference of
European imams, brining together 300 leaders, imams and female
preachers from 35 countries, that anti-Muslim bias is dangerously high
in Europe.
"The
level of discrimination against Muslim communities in Europe remains
dangerously high," Beate Winkler, head of the European Monitoring
Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), told European imams meeting in
Vienna.
"Some
people stereotype all Muslims as devotedly religious and sharing a
fundamentalist view of Islam," she said.
Winkler
said her agency would soon publish two reports on Islamophobia in
Europe, warning of a vicious circle of discrimination and hostility
towards Muslims from parts of the European majority.
Turfa
Bagaghati, deputy chairman of the European Network Against Racism
(ENAR), agreed.
"It
is high time now that Muslims in Europe pressed for their rights like
enacting laws banning aggression on Islam and enhancing Islamic
education," he told IslamOnline.net.
Issues
such as Islamic education, political participation, integration,
family role, unemployment, the environment and animal rights are
featuring high on the agenda of the three-day conference, which opened
on Friday, April 7.
Austrian
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and European Commission President Jose
Manuel Barroso led prominent European figures who attended the opening
session.
Integration
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|
Muslims
in Europe "don't want to be build a separate and isolated
society," said Schakfeh.
|
Winkler
urged European authorities to help their Muslim minorities who have
"a dangerous feeling of hopelessness and withdrawal from the
wider community."
She
proposed, in this respect, supporting mosque construction, providing
time for religious broadcasts in public broadcasting and assuring
proper education of imams and Islamic religion teachers.
European
Muslim leaders supported the goal of integrating their minorities into
their European societies.
"The
Muslims of Europe want to be an active and central part of the
societies they live in," Anas Schakfeh, president of the Islamic
Religious Authority in Austria (IRA), told the conference.
"They
don't want to be build a separate and isolated society," he
added, urging an estimated 33 million Muslims in Europe to tackle
their problems in an all-inclusive not self-centered approach.
"This
conference, which is a follow on from the 2003 conference held in Graz
(in southeastern Austria), is focused on the problems of Muslims in
Europe; not the problems of the entire Muslim world or the world as a
whole," he noted.
Vienna
Mayor Michael Häupl, one of the sponsors, was proud there are no
parallel societies or ghettos in Vienna thanks to the successful
integrationist policy of the government.
"We
all should embrace democracy as a principle, reject violence,
radicalism and extremism," he said.
Pluralism
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"The
principle of pluralism should be respected," said Schuessel.
|
Chancellor
Schuessel and Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said pluralism is the
bedrock of life system in Europe.
"The
principle of pluralism should be respected," Schuessel told the
gathering.
"Traditions
should be also respected, but we must reach common grounds," he
stressed, pointing out that Islam's core message was to interlink
religions with one another.
"Islam
has become an integral part of the European culture and everyday
life," agreed Plassnik.
The
top diplomat urged European Muslims to build bridges between Europe
and the Muslim world.
She
said the European Union has reached out to the Muslim world, in
general and Muslim minorities in particular, for cooperation and a
constructive dialogue.
The
EU in February pledged to promote dialogue with the Muslim world after
the row triggered by Danish cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessing be upon him).
Plassnik
touched on freedom of expression, which has proved a bone of
contention between the West and the Muslim world after the publication
of the cartoons.
"Freedoms
do have limits that should not be overstepped," noted the
Austrian foreign minister.
European
dailies which reprinted the twelve Danish drawings have defended the
action on the grounds of practicing their right to free speech.
Infuriated
world Muslims countered that blasphemy against any religion cannot be
called freedom of expression and should be criminalized.
