The Problem That Isn’t Going Away

A report published last week by the Turkish institute SETA has highlighted the increasingly worrying state of Islamophobia across the European continent. The “European Islamophobia Report”, which featured 43 editors and contributors, put 33 European countries under the spotlight for their varying discriminatory and racist groups and policies, identifying three key issues of concern. The first is the rising levels of hate-crimes and violence against Muslims across the country, with the UK, France, and Germany seeing skyrocketing numbers of attacks. The second issue is the wave of far-right groups entering mainstream politics across the continent. The Golden Dawn movement shocked the world during the 2009 Greek Debt-Crisis, but their precedent has spawned similar movements, from Pegida to Britain First. Finally, the role of academics and journalists is coming under further scrutiny for their role in spreading conspiracy theories and inaccurate information regarding Muslims in Europe. A worrying trend of politicians sponsoring discriminatory reports, such as the current Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, was identified in the report. You can read the rest of the report here.