Reports on Discrimination and Islamophobia in the EU

Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia

The report “Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia”, published presents available data on discrimination affecting Muslims in employment, education and housing. Manifestations of Islamophobia range from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property. The report stresses that the extent and nature of discrimination and Islamophobic incidents against European Muslims remain under-documented and under-reported. The EUMC report recommends therefore that Member States improve the reporting of incidents and implement measures to counter discrimination and racism more effectively.

The report also includes initiatives and proposals for policy action by EU Member State governments and the European institutions to combat Islamophobia and to foster integration.

Firm political leadership is needed to ensure equal treatment of all Europeans, whatever their background. This includes:

• Implementing EU legislation and adequately resourced equality bodies;
• Recording and policing Islamophobic incidents;
• Implementing social integration and inclusion policies for migrants and minorities,
• Granting equal treatment in employment;
• Improving educational achievement;
• Ensuring equal access to housing;
• Encourage European Muslims to engage more actively in public life (e.g. in political, economic, social and cultural institutions and processes).
  

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Perceptions of discrimination and Islamophobia
The Report “Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia” is accompanied by a study on “Perceptions of discrimination and Islamophobia”, which is based on in-depth interviews with members of Muslim communities in ten EU Member States. This study provides a snapshot of the opinions, feelings, fears, frustrations, and also the hopes for the future shared by many Muslims in the EU.
“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 EUMC Director Beate Winkler.

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Source: European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC)

Five years on - Afghanistan after the Taliban

What has been achieved in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted from Kabul?

PESSIMISM is something of an Afghan tradition. Yet the gloom that blankets Kabul ahead of the first snows of winter is as acute as it has been since the Taliban were ejected from the city on November 12th 2001. “Already the Americans are removing their troops. We fear that all the hopes and opportunities given to the Afghan people...will be taken away again,” says Jabar Haliq, a civil servant who lives with his family on a mountain beside the city.

There are in fact 40,000 NATO troops in the country, the highest number since 2001, and plans to reduce American forces have been postponed. Yet, like many of Kabul's generally moderate residents, Mr Haliq fears a resurgent Taliban are gaining the upper hand over foreign peacekeepers who seem to lack enthusiasm for their mission. American spending in the country has dropped this year, and few European NATO countries are eager to fight in the dangerous south of the country. Many Afghans also believe that Pakistan next door still supports the Taliban and wants, for strategic reasons, to see Afghanistan enfeebled. So far this year some 3,700 people have been killed, and the rate of insurgent attacks has sharply increased.

The high expectations some had in 2001 have not been realised. The government is, at best, a decade from being able to stand on its own feet. But efforts to stimulate the private sector and to levy taxes where none had been seen before are gradually showing results. Last year the government gathered revenues of roughly $350m, some 63% of its recurring costs—if you don’t count the billions that America and others have spent on security. Violence, a drought and chronic electricity shortages have all helped to slow the economy, which nonetheless ticks over at 8% a year. But sharp rises in the cost of living have left many lowly-paid civil servants reliant on graft to get by. Petty corruption is worsening too: it is increasingly common to be stopped by officials who ask for money in the streets of Kabul.

Read the whole story on the Economist.com