European Islamaphobia Report 2015 — Enes Bayraklı

This is the second edition of the annual European Islamophobia Report EIR which was presented for the first time in 2015 New countries are included in this year s EIR while 25 countries were covered in 2015 the report for 2016 includes 27 country reports EIR 2016 is the result of 31 prominent scholars who specialise in different fields such as racism gender and Islamophobia Studies In the years to come we will attempt to include more countries in our report Our final aim is to cover and monitor the developments of Islamophobia in all European countries Islamophobia has become a real danger to the foundations of democratic order and the values of the European Union It has also become the main challenge to the social peace and coexistence of different cultures religions and ethnicities in Europe The country reports of EIR 2016 which cover almost all the European continent from Russia to Portugal and from Greece to Latvia clearly show that the level of Islamophobia in fields such as education employment media politics the justice system and the Internet is on the rise Since the publication of the last report there is little improvement On the contrary one can see from the country reports that the state of democracy and human rights in Europe is deteriorating Islamophobia has become more real especially in the everyday lives of Muslims in Europe It has surpassed the stage of being a rhetorical animosity and has become a physical animosity that Muslims feel in everyday life be it at school the workplace the mosque transportation or simply on the street The refugee movement and the turmoil it has created in Europe the unprecedented rise of far right parties all across the continent and the UK s Brexit decision which took many by surprise have revealed the importance and relevance of this report which covers incidents and developments in 2016 The short term political significance of Islamophobia is as much relevant as Islamophobia s structural dimension As mentioned before small successes can be witnessed in some European countries yet great challenges lie ahead for deepening the values of human rights and freedom of religion in Europe

Islamophobia or anti Muslim racism poses a growing threat to the democratic foundations of European constitutions and social peace as well as the coexistence of different cultures throughout Europe Both civil society actors and states should acknowledge the seriousness of this issue and develop concrete policies to counter Islamophobia As the leading think tank in Turkey SETA felt an urgent need to address this problem In fact there are still people denying the very existence of racism against Muslims Many state and civil society institutions from the Fundamental Rights Agency FRA to the countless civil society organisations throughout Europe have done priceless work to prove and establish the opposite Yet institutions like the FRA publish only irregular reports on a restricted number of countries while most civil society organisations tackle racism in general and only few focus on Islamophobia in particular this is the urgent gap our report wishes to fill The European Islamophobia Report EIR is an annual report which is presented for the first time this year It currently comprises 25 national reports regarding each state and the tendencies of Islamophobia in each respective country The current report features the work of 37 extraordinary scholars In the years to come we will attempt to cover even more countries This report aims to enable policymakers as well as the public to discuss the issue of Islamophobia with the help of qualitative data At the same time several of its unique characteristic features make a difference to the current state of the debate on Islamophobia Studies on Islamophobia have in the past predominantly concentrated on Western Europe This is especially the case with reports focusing on Islamophobia The EIR is the first to cover a wide range of Eastern European countries like Serbia Croatia Hungary Lithuania and Latvia This will enrich the debate on racism in general and Islamophobia in Europe in particular