Islamophobia
in Europe Becomes an Entrenched Phenomenon in Institutions and Policies
The 2024
Islamophobia in Europe Report revealed that discrimination against Muslims in
Europe has gone beyond isolated incidents, becoming part of state policies,
media discourse, and security practices, and evolving into a familiar
phenomenon.
The report was
prepared by Anas Bayraqli, an academic at the Turkish-German University, and
Fred Hafez, an academic at William & Mary College in the United States, and
was published on Thursday. It focused on examining hostility toward Muslims
through legal, political, media, security, and educational policies,
systematically documenting the practices of discrimination, hatred, and
exclusion faced by Muslims in Europe.
This report, issued
independently for the tenth consecutive year, indicates that anti-Muslim racism
is no longer an exceptional issue but has become entrenched within European
institutions.
The report pointed
out that the events in the Gaza Strip in 2024, particularly the genocide
committed by the Israeli occupation, formed the main context for the
intensification of Islamophobia in Europe.
In many European
countries, authorities avoided condemning attacks on civilians, banned
pro-Palestinian demonstrations, criminalized protests, and specifically
monitored Muslim activists.
The report
emphasizes that hostility toward Muslims is increasingly institutionalized
through state policies. Data from the European Union Agency for Fundamental
Rights revealed that nearly half of Muslims in Europe have experienced
discrimination over the past five years.
The percentage of
Muslims reporting discrimination has risen to 47%, compared to 39% in 2016.
The report adds that
anti-Muslim sentiment is no longer limited to the far-right but has become one
of the defining elements of mainstream politics in Europe. The rise of the
Austrian Freedom Party, the entry of the Dutch Freedom Party led by the racist politician
Geert Wilders into government, along with similar trends in Portugal, Spain,
and Finland, are among the most prominent indicators of this shift.
Source: Anadolu
Agency
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