Muslims face growing discrimination in Europe

For decades, Europe has been tolerant of the steady growth of Islam’s presence in society. But headlines from the last few years reveal that tolerance to be thinning: the Danish Jyllands-Posten’s cartoons of Muhammad in 2005, France’s moves to ban burkas, and, just last month, the Swiss vote to outlaw new minarets.

It’s clear that Europeans are stepping up efforts to protect their culture against Islam’s incursion, and a new study shows that those efforts are not going unnoticed by Muslims. The thickening suspicion is mutual, and European Muslims believe they are being shut out of society.

Time wrote about the newly-published Open Society Institute (osi) report earlier this month:

About 20 million Muslims live in the European Union, mostly in capital cities and large industrial towns; they already make up 25 percent of the population in Marseilles, France, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands; 20 percent in Malmö, Sweden; 15 percent in Brussels and Birmingham, England; and 10 percent in London, Paris and Copenhagen. The report, published on December 15, surveyed Muslims in 11 cities across the EU and found that 55 percent of respondents believed religious discrimination had risen in the past five years. And while many Muslims are a longstanding and integral part of the fabric of their cities, the report says they are still almost three times more likely to be unemployed than non-Muslims. …[S]uspicions have boosted support for far-right politicians like the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party won 11 percent of the Dutch vote in June’s European elections with an anti-Islam platform. The osi report says the chilling political climate has alienated Muslims, often making them feel unwanted. Several European countries are tightening their immigration laws, imposing citizenship tests and setting strict rules on wearing headscarves and burkas. …The report says that Muslims may be better integrated in the UK than in other parts of the EU: An average 78 percent of Muslims identified themselves as British, compared with 49 percent of Muslims who consider themselves French and just 23 percent who feel German.

Last year, in an article titled “Islam Pushes, Europe Reacts,” Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser wrote about the Catholic Church’s reaction to the growing Muslim presence in Europe:

For 30 years, Rome has been sounding a clarion call to Europe to return to its cultural and spiritual roots. It started with Pope John Paul ii in 1981, who sought to beat back the onslaught of secularism, liberalism and pan-Islamism with this battle cry: “It can be said that the European identity is not understandable without Christianity and that it is precisely in Christianity that are found those common roots by which the Continent has seen its civilization mature ….” The pope then cried out to all Europe, “Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficent in the other continents.”Pope Benedict xvi is repeating that call. In July 2005, he prayed for God “to stop the murderous hand of those who, driven by fanaticism and hatred,” commit acts of terrorism. He then returned to the same theme introduced by his predecessor: the need for Europeans to return to their Christian roots. He quoted John Paul ii’s “revive your roots” speech.The pope’s speech in Regensburg, Germany, came 14 months later. In that speech, the world’s attention was caught by a quote Benedict used from a dialogue between Byzantine Emperor Manuel ii Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam: “Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”Since then, Pope Benedict has increasingly emphasized the need for adherents to the Church of Rome to undertake a new evangelism for their faith.

Fueled by religious fervor on both sides, the tensions between European Christians and Muslims will build. A clash between the German-dominated European Union and Islamist powers, led by Iran, is just on the horizon. For more, read The King of the South and Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.