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CORDOBA, Spain (Reuters) - Discrimination
against Muslims is becoming the main human rights
challenge in Europe since the September 11 attacks
and many governments are neglecting the problem,
delegates told a conference on Thursday.
Violence by a small minority of Islamic militants
and the West's war on terrorism have fuelled bias
against Muslims, they told a meeting held in the
southern Spanish city of Cordoba by the Organisation
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Jewish groups at the conference expressed concern
that discussion of anti-Muslim bias -- the first
time the OSCE has tackled the issue -- might divert
attention from anti-Semitism, which experts say is
also on the rise in Europe.
A similar conference of the 55-nation OSCE in Berlin
last year vowed to fight resurgent anti-Semitism in
Europe and added discrimination against Muslims,
Christians and other believers to its list of
concerns.
"Anti-Semitism has been combated by all European
countries in a very strong way. This is a very
positive thing, but in this combat against
anti-Semitism they are neglecting the importance of
Islamaphobia," Doudou Diene, the United Nations'
Rapporteur on Racism and Xenophobia, told Reuters.
"Islamaphobia is now becoming the central challenge
of European countries in the field of discrimination
and racism."
"Islamaphobia and anti-Semitism are two sides of the
same coin," said Abduljalil Sajid, adviser to the
Commission on British Muslims. "But Islamphobia has
replaced anti-Semitism as the new sharp end of
racist issues in the world wherever you go."
With more than 20 million Muslims living in Europe,
Islam is the second religion in many countries.
Reports of anti-Muslim violence and attacks on
mosques have multiplied in the wake of the September
2001 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda.
France, whose five-million-strong Muslim community
is Europe's largest, has seen attacks on Islamic
cemeteries rise in the past year. However, more than
60 percent of its reported hate crimes last year
were against Jews and their property.
Several countries have stepped up their surveillance
of radical Islamists and planned training courses
for imams to ensure these prayer leaders preach
moderate Islam.
"THE ENEMY WITHIN"
"Muslim communities have begun to be perceived in
some Western countries as 'the enemy within', posing
potential threats to the values of Western
civilisation," Turkish Minister of State Mehmet
Aydin told the conference.
"The world is witnessing the birth of a new racism
in Europe," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary
General of the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference.
Several speakers argued that anti-Semitism had to be
the priority in the OSCE's fight against religious
intolerance.
"Anti-Semitism must be specifically targeted because
of its unique and tragic history, and particularly
because of its inexplicable resurgence in recent
years," New York Governor George Pataki, the head of
the U.S. delegation, said.
"We must maintain our commitment to the specialised
treatment of the roots and manifestations of
anti-Semitism, even as we fittingly deplore and take
firm steps to address intolerance in its many
forms," said Daniel Mariaschin, Executive
Vice-President of B'nai B'rith International.
Speakers at the conference, due to end later on
Thursday, said on Wednesday that many European
governments had failed to keep pledges they made
last year to track anti-Semitic crimes and pool
information to better combat them.
The Vienna-based OSCE -- which groups countries from
Europe, North America and the area of the former
Soviet Union -- is holding the conference in Cordoba
because of its heritage of religious tolerance under
Muslim rule from 711 to 1236.
Reuters
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