Third of Europe's Muslims 'face discrimination'
Saturday, May 30, 2009 An EU survey has found that one in three Muslim people living in Europe feel they were discriminated against in 2008, but many failed to report racist incidents because of a lack of trust in authorities.
The Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released the survey of Muslims in 14 EU member states on Thursday.
It said that, while over 30 per cent of those questioned had faced discrimination, only 21 per cent reported discriminatory incidents and cases of racist crime.
Young Muslims in particular have little faith in the police as a public institution.
Some 59 per cent of Muslim respondents believed that "nothing would happen or change by reporting" and 38 per cent said that "it happens all the time" and therefore they do not make an effort to report incidents.
The report calls on European policy makers to establish "adequate mechanisms for reporting and recording discrimination and racist crime."
It also said that member states should assess whether ethnic profiling by the authorities "effectively increases the identification of criminal activity or alienates and discriminates against Muslim communities."
Only 10 per cent of Muslims who experienced prejudice said that this was solely due to their religious beliefs, while over half of the respondents felt that their ethnic origin was the reason for the discrimination.
About 30 per cent of the discrimination cases occurred when Muslims were looking for work or at work, while 14 per cent took place in bars, restaurants or in dealings with landlords, according to the report.