Many European countries, including Belgium, Austria and France have institutionalised Islamophobia by passing certain laws and have banned the religious, ethnic and cultural dresses like headscarf and abaya for women in the workplace.
Due to such issues many women in west avoid jobs at offices and prefer to remain home.
Beside this many other women face harassment in the markets and hospitals because of their religious and cultural identities.
Discrimination against Muslims, especially women, in Europe is fuelled by stereotypes and negative views.
According to European Islamophobia Report 2017, racist attacks against Muslims are usually carried out by the people who are affiliated with the far right groups and they are usually called the extremists in the Europe.
Rise of far Right in Europe
The rise of far Right parties in many European nations has become a trend in the current era. Firstly, the far right political camp has moved from the periphery to the centre and become integral to the political landscape in Europe.
According to the EIR annual report the rise of far right parties from Sweden to Greece and from Poland to Netherlands is a vital threat to the Muslim minorities in Europe.
The reports of many human rights organization like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch make it clear that the anti-Muslim attitudes have grown to their highest levels during the last three decades.
Attacking on the mosques and other worship spots of religious minorities have become a usual trend in Europe. The latest of which is the attack on the twin mosques in New Zealand by an Australian far right extremist which left 49 dead and 50 more injured.
The attack on the two mosques in NZ on Friday is the result of Islamophobia and spread of hatred towards the Muslims immigrants, say the commentators.
Beside NZ, in many other western countries Muslims have been attacked in their mosques.
For example in Russia in 2017 five Imams were killed by unknown gunmen and justice is yet to be done with the families of the Imams.
In June of the same year a man drove his van on the Muslim worshipers in London which left one dead and many others were injured.
In Poland in 2017 a Pakistani man was severely beaten by four Polish people without any reason. Later, it was confirmed that the man was beaten due to his religious affiliation.
Other than this according to the EIR, the number of physical attacks on Muslims is also at the highest in the last three decades.
AUSTRIA: in Austria 256 attacks took place against Muslim minorities and many of them went unreported. The people of Austria are the most Islamophobic as compared to the rest of the European countries. (EIR)
FRANCE: in France total of 121 attacks took place against Muslims and almost 19 mosques were closed down in 2017.
GERMANY: In Germany 101 attacks took place against Muslims inside mosques and in public places, An Egyptian female student named Shadan Muhammad was injured in hit and run incident in Germany and the most shocking moment was when she was dying of her injuries and people surrounding her were hurling racist slurs. She succumbed to her injuries in a hospital three days later.
The role of mainstream media has been equally worrisome.
According to Kai Hafez, the professor of communication studies in Germany, 60-80% of all the German press in portraying Islam as a religion of conflict and aggression.
BELGIUM: In Belgium more drastic situations have been created for the Muslims as mosques have been closed by the authorities, ritual slaughter of Muslims like Muslims do in Eid al-Adha as a part of their religion has been banned by the authorities.
DENMARK: This country is home to almost 5% Muslims of its population and after 9/11 according to EIR survey every third of Danes considered that they are at war with Islam. 8 out of 10 Danes’ attitudes towards Muslims have worsened over the past 10 years.
Beside these realities many political parties across the west are based on anti-Muslim politics.
National Front: A political faction in France which is very much against Islam says, “Islam is the biggest threat to us, it is the threat to our country and whole west”.
Party of Freedom: A political party in mainstream politics inside Netherlands says, “The Islamic immigration has threatened our identity”.
Swiss People’s Party: A political party in Switzerland says, “Europe will no longer be a Europe, it will turn into an Islamic state”.
The level of hate against Islam and the Muslims is at an all-time high and beside physical attacks they often disgrace Muslims and Islam through wall chalking.
For example, ‘Fuck Muslims’, ‘No more Muslims in West’, ‘Stupid Muslims’, ‘No to Islam’ are some of the common sentences which you will find on the walls throughout Europe.
The authorities have failed to tackle this anti-Muslim attitude and the far right extremists have got a free hand to treat Muslims like animals in Europe.
A survey regarding the role of social media in the hate crimes against Muslims in the west has highlighted some horrific and undeniable facts because the internet is termed as an open and free space for committing racist and hate crimes against Muslims.
All the above discussed issues have been highlighted by many Human Rights Organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Europe Islamophobic Report (EIR). But the authorities in the West seem clueless about how to handle this situation.