Mainstream parties are just as culpable as far-right for the Norway attack, experts say

Ahmet Faruk Ünsal, head of the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), said the incident is a reflection of rising fear of Muslims and of different cultures in Europe. “Even a country like Norway was impacted by this threat,” he said, “what we see is that there is growing tilt to the far-right rhetoric in Europe, the French President Nicola Sarkozy’s xenophobic remarks being a case in point.”

“With its new adversarial immigration policies, the European Union has contributed to this rising Islamophobia and xenophobia. The Sarkozy-[German chancellor Angela] Merkel approach to immigration has fueled hatred for other cultures. It has spilled over to Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria. In a way they were saying that only Christian values belong Europe. This terrible incident in Norway was the culmination of these wrong policies adopted by the highest echelon of European governments,” Ünsal told Today’s Zaman.

Norwegian police believe a 32-year-old Norwegian suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, is to blame for the attacks on Norway’s government headquarters and a youth retreat that left at least 93 dead. Breivik was described as a fundamentalist Christian and Muslim-hater. He had connections to the Norwegian far right, was a member of a Swedish neo-Nazi internet forum and hailed the anti-Islam PVV movement of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands as “the only true party for conservatives”.

According to sociologist Hikmet Aydın, the educational system in Europe and the attitude of governments towards Muslims in recent years have created a fertile ground for the emergence of vicious killers like Breivik in Norway. “The reasons why this murderer turned out to be a monster must be explored and scrutinized carefully,” he told Today’s Zaman. “We have o look at the bigger picture,” he added.

According to a Council of Europe report, in Europe, Islam is the second largest religion. There are more than 23 million Muslims living in Western Europe, comprising nearly 5 percent of the population.

Mustafa Kutlay, a researcher at the Center for EU Studies of the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), warned that far-right rhetoric is used not just by the extremist parties in Europe but by the mainstream parties as well. “A negative attitude developed by Sarkozy at the heart of Europe was reflected on the streets. People started look for someone to blame for the all ills of the economy. They put the blame on new arrivals to the country and immigrants,” he told Today’s Zaman.

Kutlay further argued that there is a lingering threat in other European countries over İslamophobia and xenophobia. “Far-right parties gained seats in recent elections in Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Finland. Politicians started to capitalize on the fears of people, hoping that such a strategy will deliver them votes,” he warned. Kutlay suggested that Turkey and other Muslim countries may help out the Europe to cope with these challenges.

Experts also underlined the hypocrisy of western media which quickly jumped to the conclusion that the terrorist act was Islamic terrorism even before the details of the attack were unknown or sketchy at best. The 24-hours news channels like British Sky News and American neo-conservative channel Fox News rushed to interpret the attacks as Islamic terror, only to change their versions hours later.

OIC warned years ago

The secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, warned European leaders last year about the specter of rising Islamophobia on the continent, lamenting on the lack of high-level concern over the issue among European Union member states.

“We noticed that the trend against Muslims in Europe gained momentum after the minaret ban in Switzerland,” he said, adding that the move should have sent shockwaves across Europe. “With the Swiss referendum, Islamophobia has become institutionalized, sanctioned by the constitution,” he warned, drawing an analogy to anti-Semitic sentiments of the 1930s. The OIC lobbies for the adaptation of anti-defamation resolutions against Islam with European governments as well as international bodies such as the UN. “The US is more receptive to our concerns, unlike the Europeans, who insist defamation rules violate freedom of expression and freedom of the press. İhsanoğlu insists the OIC is not against these freedoms, saying his aim is to invite everybody to respect Islam. “Insulting other people’s religions goes against the principles of the Geneva Convention on Human Rights,” he added.

The OIC would like to find common ground with Europe on resolving the issue of “demonizing” Islam, he said. After the Swiss vote to ban minarets, there have been calls for a similar ban in Germany, with the accompanying rise of Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician who has denounced the Quran. “All this should be very troubling news for everybody,” he underlined.

Council of Europe identified the threat

Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg is among those who believe that as some EU governments take a tolerant stance on the arguments of the extremist right in Europe, xenophobia and Islamophobia gain momentum.

“Europe has been affected by xenophobia and Islamophobia,” he told Today’s Zaman on the sidelines of an İstanbul meeting back in February. Some political parties in governments don’t take the role of defending the agreed-upon human rights standards, but begin to compromise to extremists, Hammarberg warned. “That’s unfortunate because it legitimizes the extreme-right position. They should, instead, stand up and argue why we have these human rights standards, why xenophobia is not right and Islamophobia is not acceptable,” he said.

The extremists comprise about 10-15 percent of the populations in many countries of Europe, Hammarberg underscored, as more extremist political parties are achieving political success in local, national and European elections.

“They are a problem, of course, but I am focusing on the other political parties which gravitate to the extremists’ position instead of making it very clear that they don’t accept their propaganda. That’s where the real problem lies today. Then extremists will think that if even prime ministers repeat what they saying, then they must be right. It is time to scrutinize the arguments of extremists because they are not right,” he said.

The Council of Europe, Europe’s largest intergovernmental human rights watchdog, has warned that intolerance toward Islam and Muslims in Europe has been increasing in recent years and urged immediate action to halt violence against Muslims.

In a report titled: “Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe,” the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) noted last year -- with deep concern -- that in many of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states, Muslims feel socially excluded, stigmatized and discriminated against, stressing that they have become victims of stereotypes, social marginalization and political extremism because of their different religious and cultural traditions. The report lambasted some member states where far right-wing parties have changed their traditional hostile campaign against immigration and foreigners and now exploit the public fear of Islam. The PACE report underlined: “Their political campaigns encourage anti-Muslim sentiments and the amalgamation of Muslims with religious extremists. They advocate the fear of Europe being swamped by Muslims.”

It listed political parties such as the French National Front, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Belgian Vlaams Belang and the Swiss People’s Party, which have been very successful in running campaigns against Islam and, thus, contributed to the stigmatization of Muslims.

“Through simplifications and negative stereotypes, these parties conveyed a distorted image of Islam,” the report said. The PACE report underscored the need for support for Muslim immigrants in member states. “Muslims should be supported by member states to integrate into European society culturally, economically and politically,” it said.