Islamophobia, human rights, and the Council of Europe

What we many be witnessing in Europe with regard to the Roma issue could be the future of how we fight back against hateful discourses and openly discriminatory policies by EU Member States.   There appears to be a human rights awakening taking place and a realization that radical extremist politics is a threat to the European project- and hopefully this trend will continue. What is for the Roma in France today could be for the Muslim in the Netherlands tomorrow.First of all, the European People’s Party (EPP), once again, condemned the events at forming a Dutch government with the extremist “anti-Islam political party.” We must give the Christian Democrats of the CDA credit in that they have issued statements that religious freedoms for all (Muslim, as well as Christian) are safe in the Netherlands, at least for now.  This reassurance from Maxime Verhagen to the EPP that religious freedom and democracy were safe in the Netherlands even with Wilders as “kingmaker.” (However – we see NO statements -now- on the CDA site over vrijheid van godsdienst.) This statement is something that was necessary and something that this Author also called for in letters. Some are frightened that Wilders is now the “main pillar of the new Dutch government” and this situation really must be monitored and watched by European institutions and international community. There is now a report that the CDA leader wished Wilders “a lot of success with his speech. “Use the current regime to combat discrimination and hate politics against the Roma to combat anti-Islam politics in the future. What will be useful in combating Dutch Islamophobia (Islamophobia is the number one Dutch export) will be how European institutions respond to the abuse of the Roma people (who are also Muslims, btw) and the actions taken against France, but other EU member states, like Italy, which has been abusing the Roma for over two years.While the Commission is taking France to court for infringement proceedings over is failure to transcribe a 2004 Directive with regard to freedom of movement of EU citizens into French law, the Council of Europe (CoE) has taken up both the plight of the Roma and the threat of Islamophobia “in light of recent national developments” (Netherlands).Bring more ethics and responsibility to European politics – de-legitimize the politics of “anti-Islam.” There has been past attempts in European and national politics to reign in extremist discourse and hate speech. There now appear to be renewed efforts in light of the happening in the Netherlands. The past saw displaced efforts to “combat Islamist discourse,” but there are no such efforts by “Islamists” in European and national politics?The first is the 2000 document on discrimination against Muslims from CoE that defends religious freedom and calls for ending religious discrimination. Typing “religious freedom” into the Eur-Lex search engine gets 89 hits and many cases, like PACE recommendations, have to do with religious extremism by “Islamists” in Islamic countries. In the past the CoE has in the past called upon ethics for political actors in European politics, who have “special tasks and responsibilities … in a democratic political process, defending, articulating and bearing witness to the basic principles of a democratic society.”

Recognising that the fundamental rights as enshrined in the international human rights instruments signed and ratified by the EU member states include the right to free and uninhibited political speech and debate,Mindful that according to these same international human rights instruments one’s political freedoms are not absolute in view of the equally fundamental right to be protected against racial discrimination and that therefore political freedoms cannot be allowed to be abused to exploit, cause or initiate prejudice on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic origin or nationality or for the purpose of seeking to gain the sympathy of the electorate for prejudice on such grounds,Convinced that free use of one’s political rights can and must go hand in hand with firmly upholding the principle of non-discrimination and is inherent in the democratic process itself…

We must realize two facts. First, Geert Wilders and like-minded radical Islamophobes are a great recruitment tool for al-Qaeda and Islamist terrorists. Second, the problem is not Islam itself, nor Muslim communities – who are productive and contributing to the fabric of Western democracies, especially in the Netherlands – but radicals like Wilders and their use of myths about Muslims and Islam.  We should look at the PACE statement  -Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe- that appears to be seperating the very tiny number of “Islamists” from the majority of European Muslims, like the Muslims in the Netherlands, who now face the prospect of a governemnt that is hostile to them:

The Parliamentary Assembly notes that Islamic radicalism and manipulation of religious beliefs for political reasons oppose human rights and democratic values. At the same time, in many Council of Europe member states, Muslims feel socially excluded, stigmatised and discriminated against; they become victims of stereotypes, social marginalisation and political extremism. The Assembly is deeply concerned about Islamic extremism as well as about extremism against Muslim communities in Europe. Both phenomena reinforce each other.

While calling on the end to security discourse with regard to the Roma, the PACE continues some security discourse with regard to European Muslims and Islam. Accroding to the PACE statement aimed at discourse against the Roma:

We cannot accept a whole community being associated with crime and trafficking, using this as an excuse for toughening security measures against them….a clear distinction must be made in political discourse between individuals who have committed crimes and entire groups of people, such as Roma or any other minority or migrant group….refrain from statements […] which may […] be understood as hate speech, or as speech likely to produce the effect of […] promoting racial hatred, xenophobia, or other forms of discrimination […] based on intolerance”.

This statement could also be applied to the Netherlands, especially, and Geert Wilders accusations and myths against Dutch Muslims. There should be NO security discourse with regard to ANY minority community in any Member State of CoE. Part of this problem stems from the original, post 9-11, problem of security discourse against Muslim communities – but now extended to Roma communities.  Ah – yes – the discourses now are starting to combine “Islamist” extremism with extremist Islamophobia – and this is a sure sign that Europe’s human rights institutions are getting the threat from radical Islamophobes, like Wilders.Now – the proposed  “crack down” on the funding of extremist groups – will this also be extended to a crack down on the funding of extremist groups like Geert Wilders’ PVV party? Will proposed action against financial aid to extremist groups in Europe also include Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller’s funding of Geert Wilders?What is really needed is to de-legitimize “anti-Islam” politics and stigmatize it as just as taboo as anti-Semitism and racism. Part of the problem with the CoE is that it may have been tacitly participating in the spread of Islamophobia though its calls to “combat extremism” and “Islamism” in Europe. Given the wildfire that Islamophobia is now spreading, I predict that it won’t be long before European institutions will be holding a major summit on the problem. No citizen of a Western democratic and free nation should fear that his government hates him and crafts policies against him because of his religion, or being a Muslim.  Not in the Netherlands, not America – not NO where should this be allowed to happen !