Anti-Islam sentiment in the West has risen to unprecedented levels

Participants in a London conference on "Islamophobia" have warned about the impact of the Gaza war on the increase in crimes committed in Western countries due to hatred of Muslims.

Dec 17, 2024 - 05:44

Anti-Islam sentiment in the West has risen to unprecedented levels

Participants in a London conference on "Islamophobia" have warned about the impact of the Gaza war on the increase in crimes committed in Western countries due to hatred of Muslims.

Dawud Walid, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a member of the Michigan Council of Community Imams in the United States, said at a London conference examining the spread of Islamophobia that statistics show that crimes committed due to hate against Islam in Western countries over the past year and after the October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Storm have increased at an unprecedented rate.

The head of CAIR has pointed out that the statistics of hate crimes committed against Muslims in Michigan are higher than those committed in the entire United States, and he said that the problem is due to the spread of hatred against Palestinians by politicians and the media.

Author and civil rights activist Sandew Hira has described the issue of the spread of Islamophobia as a sign of the fear that has gripped the West due to the spread of Islamic Civilization, which is viewed as an alternative narrative.

Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, said that the policy of spreading hatred against Islam in Western societies has hit rock bottom, and noted that, due to the increase in the number of Muslims in the past decade, they have now become an influential group in Western countries.

The coordinated trend of spreading hatred against Islam in Europe is still ongoing; and one of its consequences and effects is the intensification of discriminatory attitudes, bias and racism against the Muslim community on the continent.

Reports of hatred and injustice against Muslims have increased at an alarming rate in European countries since the start of the Israeli offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

The annual report of the Council of Europe's Anti-Discrimination Commission released on Thursday said that there has been an alarming increase in hatred against Islam, Muslims and Palestinians in European countries following the October 7 attacks.

The report stated that girls and women are at greater risk of Islamophobic harassment because their clothing makes their religious identity clear.

The Council of Europe's Commission for Combating Discrimination has stated in the report that, at times, Muslims are discriminated against and even denied access to healthcare, being blamed for ongoing events in the West Asian region.

The report emphasized that xenophobia, which has existed for many years in European countries, has turned into Islamophobia after the Israeli regime's attacks on Gaza.

Hate crimes against Muslims have increased in various countries around the world, following the start of the illegal Israeli regime's attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

More than 37,400 Palestinians, including more than 15,500 children, have been martyred in the brutal Israeli offensive in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and nearly 70 percent of the besieged Strip's civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.