After the brutal right-wing terrorist attacks against Muslims in Norway, it has become clear that in Germany too, right-wing terrorists are actually capable of executing the worst attacks against Muslims.
The acts of hatred against Islam have been inflamed by the recent attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in which 12 journalists were killed by the two Kouachi brothers in addition to four Jews and a police officer.
There were clear signs for this frightening development in Europe, but there was no proper interpretation of this tension, or the potential risks to Muslims. Instead, there was denial of this danger that was being ignored till this very moment.
Since three months ago, many German cities witnessed pro-and anti-Islam protests, based on a call from the “Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of Europe” movement, also known as PEGIDA, which organises weekly protests against what it considers the Islamisation of Europe.
The number of protesters, who are joining these racial protests that take place every Monday, has been significantly increasing. As a result, there are hundreds of participants.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised many protests against Muslims in several cities including the east German city of Dresden that witnessed 10,000 participants last Monday.
Merkel said very clearly that there is no place for religious hatred in Germany whatever people’s religion.
Amid the rise of Islamophobia, the German Migration Council asked the parties represented in the parliament “Bundestag” to recommend forming an independent commission, presided by Turkish born Aydan Özoguz, Germany’s Integration Minister, to come up with a new plan to address the rights of immigrants.
Certainly, there are political and economic factors behind these hostile acts toward Muslims, whose number has increased from hundreds of thousands in the 1950s of the past century to nearly 16 million in European Union countries.
This observable fact is on the rise. Also, there is no disputing the fact that the fear of Islam and the spectre of “Europe’s Islamisation” is an invitation to more extremism. First and foremost, political courage is needed to deal with these two phenomena, Islamophobia and racism against Muslims in Western societies.
The Islamophobic hatred of Muslims in Europe is very worrying. Fighting and reducing this phenomenon is essentially a joint responsibility of Muslim communities and European governments, particularly after the trend of extremism crossing homelands, which has been exploited in a rude and irresponsible way to distort the image of Islamic communities and imposing restrictions on them.
Moreover, the sentiments of European citizens have been played on through the bias insistence on a number of allegations and half-truths.
The crimes, which have targetted Muslims and mosques in Germany, and France, have dramatically increased in recent years. Therefore, German Muslims began to be very concerned about their homeland, the “free” Germany.
When efforts are concentrated and integrated to fight and reduce Islamophobia then the misunderstanding of westerners about Islam and Muslims can be eliminated.
People are usually against what is foreign to them. When taking this fact into consideration, we may initiate dialogues to create a new environment to support constituents of peaceful co-existence in communities. And may God keep all of us safe!
