DM Monitoring
Ankara: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Tuesday warned against the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment in Western countries as he said states are now openly embracing far-right and Islamophobic political movements and anti-Muslim policies.
Speaking at the First International Media and Islamophobia Symposium in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan stated that Islamophobia has become a serious concern as Western states fail to take action against it.
“Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment have been spreading like cancer cells in many parts of the globe, primarily in the West,” the president said, adding that far-right groups once considered radical and marginal have now become mainstream political movements in western countries. “Instead of discussing the dimensions of the Western threat, those who fall under the influence of racist and discriminatory trends take the easy way out,” he underlined.
Racist attacks targeting Muslims or immigrants increasingly make the headlines as white supremacists become more efficient in an age where their ideals, or at least parts of them, are going mainstream. There is no single large group orchestrating these attacks against Muslims and immigrants. Rather, individual attacks lead to more copycat attacks. The tolerant political climate under the pretext of freedom of speech has helped far-right sympathizers with violent tendencies expand their support. Erdoğan said that those who once targeted the Jewish community now have turned Muslims into the main target.
“We clearly know that this new racism against Muslims is actually a hostility against Islam despite the efforts by Western societies to soften it by calling ‘Islamophobia,’” he said.
“The U.S. administration’s strategy to demonize Muslims post-9/11 has served as a means to further trigger anti-Muslim sentiment that already existed in the cultural structure of many Western societies,” he also underlined. Erdoğan continued by urging all countries and societies to join forces and establish a strong communication network against the rising threat.
“Efforts to prevent Islamophobia, which play an important role in peace and security of the whole of humanity, should be carried out through common sense mechanisms that should be set up.” “We need to mobilize all politicians, intellectuals and media workers with a conscience and our own religious officials against the threat of Islamophobia,” Erdoğan said. He noted that efforts against Islamophobia need to be conducted by joint mechanisms to ensure peace and security for all.
Turkish officials, including Erdoğan, have frequently urged European decision-makers and politicians to take a stance against racism and other types of discrimination that have threatened the lives of millions of people living within the bloc’s borders.
