A coalition of Muslim NGOs, taking part in the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) annual Human Dimension Conference in Poland, made an urgent call for an end to state-sponsored Islamophobia and the systematic targeting of Muslim communities throughout Europe.

Muslim civil society groups from Europe warned of the growing level of Islamophobia spreading across the continent at a major security and human rights conference in Poland.

Seven Muslim groups from Austria, France, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands spoke out against the climate of “state-sponsored” Islamophobia facing them in their countries.

Their address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw came days after Polish authorities banned Cage’s international director, Muhammad Rabbani, from entering Poland after his name appeared on the Schengen Information System, which lets any Schengen member-state place an individual on a no-entry list to the Schengen zone.

Adil El-Kanfoudi, spokesperson for Muslim Rights Watch in the Netherlands, told the OSCE conference that he was due to meet Rabbani alongside other European Muslim civil society groups.

“This incident, among many others, is a perfect example of a broader pattern, where key figures from the Muslim community are unjustly placed on blacklists,” said Adil El-Kanfoudi. “Muslims are systematically targeted, a blatant violation of their constitutional rights.”

Commenting on his own country’s situation, Kanfoudi spoke of the hundreds of Dutch Muslims who approached his organization and said they had been wrongly placed on the terror list by the Dutch authorities, leading some to lose their livelihoods, face banking and travel restrictions and being treated like “second class citizens.”

Nehal Abdalla, Cage’s researcher in Austria, condemned the Austrian government’s Operation Luxor, which led to Austrian police raiding the homes of 70 Muslim households and the arrest of 30 Muslim academics in 2020.

Campaigners from France also spoke at the OSCE session and said the ban on the abaya in schools and recent police killings of young North African men had further heightened tensions.

“Undressed, harassed, humiliated. The young girls in France suffer, yet no one reacts,” said Elias d’Imzalene, from Perspective Musulmanes. “All my respect goes to these young Muslim girls who continue to fight for their freedom to remain Muslim even though the French state does everything it can to prevent them from remaining Muslim.”

The OSCE describes itself as “the world’s largest regional security organization”, drawing together 57 member states from Europe, Central Asia, and North America.

Source: Middle East Eye