-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,721300,00.html
}}}>Begin
End growing anti-Muslim prejudice, EU report urges
Ian Black in Brussels
Friday May 24, 2002
The Guardian
British politicians and the media were warned yesterday to avoid demonising
immigrants and asylum seekers after a damning EU report warned of mounting anti-
Muslim prejudice across the continent.
The government was legitimising racist debate by giving mixed messages, the head
of the EU's anti-racism centre said.
The report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia blamed
British media for using negative stereotypes of Muslims and portraying asylum
seekers as terrorists and the "enemy within" after September 11.
In the survey, the Vienna-based EUMC said Britain had seen a "significant" increase
in violent assault, abuse and attacks on Muslim property, some "very serious".
Rises were also reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, where common
incidents involved verbal abuse of women wearing the hijab.
British and other European politicians and community leaders were praised for trying
to bridge gaps in inter- faith meetings and campaigns for tolerance. But they were
warned to avoid pandering to popular prejudice.
"September 11 has in some cases merely acted as a detonator of feelings that we
have failed to adequately address," Bob Purkis, the EUMC chairman, said in
Brussels.
"By demonising refugees and asylum seekers you legitimise racism and xenophobia.
There are mixed messages coming from the prime minister, from the Foreign Office.
In the discussion about asylum seekers we have to make sure we are not operating
in ways that legitimise the debate that racists are having."
Earlier this month Peter Hain, the Europe minister, called for greater efforts to
integrate isolated British Muslims who were vulnerable to extremists and fanatics.
"If it is right for Europe to give a lead where there is ethnic tension elsewhere in
the
world, then it is imperative that it puts its own house in order if it is to be
listened to,"
Mr Purkiss said.
The EUMC singled out the UK media for "disproportionate" coverage to "extremist
Muslim groups and British Muslims who declared their willingness to join an Islamic
war against the west".
Less sensationalist Muslim voices were mainly overlooked while "very basic
Islamophobic stereotypes" shaped the popular image of young British Muslim men, it
said.
Sections of the media were blamed for fuelling anti-Muslim feeling by reports that al-
Qaida terrorists had entered the country as asylum seekers.
"Such instances were used to justify hostility in order to stop them eradicating
British
values and exploiting its social welfare system at the same time," the report said. "As
a result, the distance between issues relating to asylum seekers and those of
September 11 began to be gradually narrowed, until the two had almost become
identifiable as one. Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the
report confirmed their own monitoring. "Under the cover of the war on terrorism,
safeguards have been lowered for reporting on Muslims," he said. Phrases like "fifth
columnists" and "Muslim scroungers" had become commonplace.
The EU study covered the period from September 11 to the end of 2001.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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