MUSLIM community living in France is now bearing the brunt of Islamophobia, which is now being institutionalized. On Saturday, French police questioned four 10 years old students on the allegation to kill their children if dares lampoon the Prophet of Islam. The parents of these children were also detained and questioned for several hours. Meanwhile, on Thursday French Prime Minister Jean Castex, while leading the memorial of three people killed in a Church in Nice, warned that extremists were recruiting French citizens. On November 3, President National Rally party Marine Lee Pen demand that government should stop immigration of Muslims, particularly of Pakistanis to France. French President Emmanuel Mcron is leading hate Muslims campaign by accusing them of “separatism” and has labeled Islam a “religion in crisis.” From 2015 till now the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdoo is acting as tool of spreading hate against Muslims by publishing the blasphemous cartoons. It was because of this negative tendency that a Middle School History teacher Samuel Patty displayed the blasphemous cartoon in class room, inciting a Moscow born Muslim student of Chechen origin to kill him. The incident was blown out of proportion with media hype and anti-Muslim rallies in France, in addition to one minute silence by French MPs in parliament. France was the first European Union member country which passed and enforced a discriminatory law in 2011against wearing full-face veil by Muslim women at public places, followed by Belgium. Last year European Court of Human Rights upheld the Belgian ban on wearing full-face veil by Muslim women. In Denmark, the Danish parliament passed legislation in August 2018 which makes wearing of full-face veil a cognizable offence liable for punishment in the form of fine. The same year another European Union member country, Austria shut down seven Turkish mosques and expelled 40 Turk Imams. Islamophobia is being used as political football for attracting voters not only by the politicians in the rank and file of far-right political parties but also the ones in right-of-the-center parties. By and large leaders of OIC member countries have shown an oblivious attitude towards the surging tide of sentiments against Islam and Muslims in Europe. It is high time that western leaders and thin tanks are engaged in intellectual dialogue about Islam.
