Islamophobia Watch

Europeans are increasingly lashing out at the construction of mosques in their cities as terrorism fears and continued immigration feed anti-Muslim sentiment across the continent.

The latest dispute is in Switzerland, which is planning a nationwide referendum to ban minarets on mosques. This month, Italy's interior minister vowed to close a controversial mosque in Milan.

Some analysts call the mosque conflicts the manifestation of a growing fear that Muslims aren't assimilating, don't accept Western values and pose a threat to security. "It's a visible symbol of anti-Muslim feelings in Europe," says Danièle Joly, director of the Center for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick in England. "It's part of an Islamophobia. Europeans feel threatened."

The disputes reflect unease with the estimated 18 million Muslims who constitute the continent's second-biggest religion, living amid Western Europe's predominantly Christian population of 400 million, Joly says. The clashes also represent a turnaround from the 1980s and '90s, when construction of large mosques was accepted and even celebrated in many cities. "I think the tide has turned," Joly says.

USA Today, 17 July 2008

See also "Not in my backyard, say an increasing number of Germans" in Spiegel Online, which reports: "The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society."

The article quotes Mina Ahadi, a German-based member of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, who claims that there are "more than enough mosques in Germany". According to Ahadi: "When a mosque is built the result is that greater pressure is placed on women, and even more children are forced to wear a headscarf to school, which leads to isolation." She accuses German politicians of "boundless naiveté" in their dealings with Islamic organisations that, she argues, "ultimately want to instate sharia law".