Nearly half of Muslims living in Europe face racism and discrimination in their daily lives, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has said in a report.

The report Being Muslim in the EU, based on 2022 data, highlighted a sharp increase in anti-Muslim sentiment, with 47 percent of Muslim respondents reporting racial discrimination, up from 39 percent in 2016.

The survey shed light on the increasing challenges faced by Muslims across the EU, particularly in employment and housing.

“Muslims most often face discrimination when looking for work (39 percent) or in the workplace (35 percent),” it said.

It underscored that these issues have ripple effects in other areas, such as housing, education, and health care.

The report added that women who wear religious attire experience higher levels of racial discrimination than those who do not, particularly when looking for employment, and the rate has risen to 45 percent in 2022 from 31 percent in 2016, with young women aged 16-24 experiencing the highest incidence at 58 percent.

‘A worrying surge in racism’

Discrimination in the housing market has also surged, with 35 percent of respondents saying they were unable to rent or buy a house due to discrimination, a significant increase from 22 percent in 2016.

The report also highlights issues with law enforcement, with nearly half (49 percent) of those stopped by police believing they were subjected to racial profiling.

FRA Director Sirpa Rautio called the situation alarming, saying, “We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe.”

She attributed this to conflicts in the Middle East and “dehumanizing anti-Muslim rhetoric across the continent.”

“We need to ensure that everyone in the EU feels safe, included, and respected, regardless of their skin color, background, or religion,” Rautio added.

Source: TRT World

The newspaper referred to a recent study launched by USC Annenberg’s inclusion initiative; which indicated that Muslims make up 25 percent of the world’s population, but their presence as characters in popular TV series does not exceed 1.1 percent.

The study stated that images of Muslims are often linked to terrorism or violence, as the study conducted found that “more than 30% of the 98 Muslim personalities assessed were vulnerable to perpetrators of violence, while nearly 40% were the target of violent attacks.”

The author of the article said that there is a common trope that portrays Muslims in a bad light and relates to “the feeling of liberation of women when they take off the veil,” which makes the public assume that the veil is a symbol of oppression.

They are also commonly portrayed as submissive and fearful of their male counterparts, reinforcing the idea that Muslim women are vulnerable to oppression.

The author also indicated that the focus is often placed on the faith of those Muslim personalities, which reduces the chances of showing other aspects of their personalities, which makes the public believe that religion is the focus of every Muslim’s life, and also causes Muslims to isolate instead of integrating them and turning them into productive members of American societies.

Note that the aforementioned study revealed that among the 98 Muslim personalities in the sample, almost half of them referred to their faith in some way, and 23.5 percent of them revealed that they were portrayed non-verbally on the grounds that they are Muslims.

Source: Shiawaves.com

With the developments in the stem cell technology, a fully functional heart or a liver prepared in the laboratory to replace diseased organs may not remain a distant possibility. Scientists in different parts of the world are pursuing this ambitious goal using stem cells – the raw material from which other cells grow.

A recent article published in the Stem Cell Reports highlights that the voices of faith communities, especially Muslims, are relatively silent in the global discourse on stem cell ethics.

The authors of the paper, who are members of an International Ethics Thinking Group, foresee that this inclusion can strengthen the understanding of ethical issues, improve global guidelines and regulations, enhance public engagement in ethics debates and policy development, and enable broader participation in the knowledge society…Representation of faith communities in devising policies is crucial, especially when contested sources such as human embryos are used in stem cell research, argue the authors.

Considering this inherent bias and growing participation of Muslim countries in the stem cell science, the authors call for consciously expanding the participation of thought leaders from the Muslim world in global discussions.

Source: The News International