BRUSSELS, Dec 18: Muslims in Europe face wide-spread discrimination in employment, education and housing but the extent and nature of such prejudice and Islamophobic incidents against European Muslims remain under-documented and under-reported, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) warned on Monday.
The Vienna-based EUMC said manifestations of Islamophobia ranged from verbal threats to physical attacks on people and property and warned that such incidents were undermining Muslims’ sense of belonging in the European Union.
Beate Winkler, director of the EUMC, said the study underlined Muslims’ vulnerability to discrimination and demonstrated the need for greater efforts to ensure that all European Muslims enjoyed the right to equal treatment and the same quality of life as other Europeans.
“Firm political leadership is needed to ensure equal treatment of all Europeans, whatever their background,” said Winkler.
The report highlighted that only Britain published criminal justice data which specifically identify Muslims as victims of hate crime incidents.
In other EU countries it was difficult to measure the precise nature of the discrimination suffered by European Muslims because of poor or missing official data.
The EUMC said that improving educational achievement, granting equal treatment in employment, ensuring equal access to housing, and encouraging participation in public life were key issues to be tackled, particularly at the local and regional level.
It added that Muslims, as a group, were over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy. “Their educational achievement, in general, falls below average and their unemployment rates are higher than average. They are often disproportionately represented in areas with poorer housing conditions,” the report warned.
“Integration is a two-way process. Many European Muslims acknowledge that they need to do more to engage with wider society.
At the same time Europe’s political leaders must make a stronger effort to promote meaningful intercultural dialogue and tackle racism, discrimination and marginalisation more effectively,” said Winkler.
The report said that discrimination against Muslims could be attributed to Islamophobic attitudes as well as to racist and xenophobic resentment, as these elements are often intertwined. “Hostility against Muslims must therefore be seen in the more general context of xenophobia and racism towards migrants and minorities,” it said.
It added that many European Muslims, particularly young people, faced barriers to social advancement, resulting in a feeling of hopelessness and social exclusion.
Although no firm figures are available, an estimated 15 million Muslims are believed to be living in Europe, constituting the continent’s second largest religious group. Muslims from Turkey, North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the former Yugoslavia predominate among the EU’s Muslim populations. A substantial number have EU citizenship.
Identifying key areas of action, the EUMC said governments must try harder to tackle discrimination and address social marginalisation.
“Policy responses need to acknowledge that many Muslims in the EU have experienced discrimination, which has impacted on employment opportunities and education standards, thus leading to social marginalisation,” it said.
The centre also called for mechanisms to record overall racist incidents, with the aim of breaking these statistics down into incidents involving different victim groups, including Muslims. It said governments must incorporate anti-racism and diversity training in their police training programs and said minorities should be actively consulted in the formulation of policies aimed at social integration.
Minority pupils must not be placed in separate classes and school textbooks should be reviewed in order to ensure that history of minority groups is presented in an accurate way, the EUMC said. Also discussion of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia should be part of official school curricula.
While European political parties were urged to stop spreading racist propaganda, the report also asked European Muslims to engage more actively in public life.
The EUMC said European media should examine its reporting to ensure its accuracy and comprehensiveness in the coverage of these issues and implement recruitment and training initiatives for journalists to better reflect diversity within the EU.
Highlighting that integration was a two-way process, the centre said European Muslims must do more to engage with wider society but also insisted that Europe’s political leaders must make a stronger effort to promote meaningful intercultural dialogue and tackle racism, discrimination and marginalisation more effectively.
