|
Muslim News - November 30, 2007
Cordoba conference:
Calls for measures against Islamophobia
By Imam Abduljalil Sajid
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held the Cordaba 2007 conference on Islamophobia last month. OSCE Chairman, Miguel Angel Moratinos, called on the international community to adopt measures against Islamophobia, which he described as a new form of racism which was growing fast.
The OSCE Chairmanship Conference on Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims was held in Cordoba, Spain, October 8-10. Cordoba was a symbolic choice of venue because of its history of centuries of coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula. The city hosted a similar OSCE conference on anti-Semitism in 2005 where a British Imam, Dr Abduljalil Sajid, was a key note speaker, calling upon the Spanish Government to give back Cordoba’s famous Masjid to Spanish Muslims as gesture of good will and harmony.
The OSCE, a forum dialogue which promotes human rights, democracy and conflict prevention, has in several declarations expressed concern about and condemned discrimination against Muslims.
The Cordaba conference was part of Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s efforts to resolve cultural and religious differences, especially between the Western and Muslim world.
“Islamophobia gathered pace in the West with the end of the Cold War, long before the September 11, 2001, attacks against the US,” said Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, at the Cordoba conference.
Muslims in Europe face discrimination when it comes to employment, education and housing, said Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, the head of research and data collection at the Vienna-based European Fundamental Rights Agency.
Studies by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia have found that anti-Muslim behaviour and attitudes have risen since 2001, said Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. For example in Ireland, according to the 2002 census, 11 percent of Muslims were unemployed compared to a national average of 4.0 percent. He added that in Britain, the unemployment rate for Muslims, both men and women, is also higher than that for the general population, especially among those between the ages of 16 and 24. “In the area of education there is evidence that Muslim pupils tend to have a lower level of education achievement,” Dimitrakopoulos said.
A recent report by the centre has shown that Muslim minorities in Europe face deep-seated discrimination in jobs, education and housing in addition to myriad barriers that give rise to feelings of hopelessness and exclusion.
Turkish State Minister, Mehmet Aydin, told the Conference: “Co-existence is important. No one can expect another to leave aside his/her culture. Regardless of which culture we are from, we have to compromise on fundamental political values. I am afraid that Europe is going backward in such values. Security is vital…Europe must go forward rather than backward. A decade from now may be too late. Are you for a repeat of Jewish enmity?” he warned. “In a global world, getting smaller every day, we have to learn to live side by side,” adding: ”How will you bring democracy to Islamic nations without [incorporating] Turkey in the EU?...Turkey has gone a long way in democracy and human rights and is at European standards in these areas…We must be reaching out across the barricades that exist or that some want to place between the Muslim world and the West. In that regard, the role to be played and the work to be done by civil society organizations is of utmost importance in lifting these barricades, by helping to initiate a sound dialogue".
Among British speakers at the conference were Mr Humayun ANSARI, Royal Holloway London, Mr Ehsan MASOOD, author of the British Media Guide on Muslims and Arzu Merali of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, London.
The consequences of Islamophobia and role of Media and of education were discussed and debated. At the end of the conference, the Cordoba Declaration 2007 was issued.
Moratinos said: “It is all the more significant in that in recent years there has occurred a conspicuous demographic change in many countries, and nowadays Islam is professed by millions within the European Union…In Spain alone, hundreds of thousands of Muslims live peacefully with us, as do we with them.”
Gema Martin Munoz, the director of Arab House, a public body working to strengthen ties between Spain and the Arab world, told Agence France Presse (AFP) “There is a lack of data regarding the phenomena of Islamophobia…It is important to collect data to avoid overestimating or minimizing Islamophobia.”
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=3250
Cordoba declaration
Pronounced by the current president of the OSCE about intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities
Distinguished delegates,
Permit me to summarize the discussions held during the Conference about Intolerance and Discrimination towards Muslim communities that I would like to call,
Cordoba Declaration Pronounced by the Current President of the OSCE about Intolerance and Discrimination Towards Muslim Communities
Inspired once again by the spirit of Cordoba, the City of Three Cultures;
Recognizing that human rights and freedom is fundamental, democracy and the current state of rights and liberties finds itself in the essence of the conception of the security of the OSCE, reaffirming that racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity and discrimination, towards Muslims and others, are contrary to our principles, values and commitments.
Remembering the Cordoba Declaration of 2005, which recognized that certain forms of intolerance and discrimination can have unique origins and characteristics and that instruments used to combat these, in many ways, that are similar and include efforts in relation to observation, the gathering of information, legislation, the fulfilment of the laws, education, means of communication and the promotion of dialogue;
Remembering the Ministerial decisions made in Oporto and Sofia that, among other things, demonstrated preoccupation for the phenomenon of intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities, as well as during the Conferences of the OSCE in the last years celebrated in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Cordoba and recently in Bucharest, and meetings such as the one held in Almaty, that, among other things, raised questions around intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities;
Recognizing that the objective of this Conference is to examine in detail intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities in the OSCE environment, with the desire to offer possible solutions as part of the effort to fight against all forms of discrimination;
It is a pleasure for the Current President to pronounce that,
1. Intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities should be discussed with great importance and actions that are based on said intolerance and discrimination should be condemned without hesitation, and the commitment made by the member states of the OSCE should be reaffirmed in relation to the struggle against intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities.
2. It is necessary to avoid prejudices that engender intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities, which can lead our societies and states to biased perceptions and which can build new walls that divide communities;
3. According to the current President:
The primordial responsibility to confront acts of intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities is one of all participating states. This can be fulfilled by promoting and facilitating intercultural and inter-religious dialogues that are open and transparent, and means of collaboration that establish tolerance, respect, mutual understanding, based on the defence of human rights and fundamental liberties to combat prejudice, alienation and marginalization.
This also demands that Muslim communities should commit to the societies within which they live. It is very important for them to participate, among other things, in political and social life through representative organizations.
No international event or political issue can justify intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities and other communities.
All forms of terrorism should be condemned. The identification of this extremism in Islam should be wholly rejected.
Political and community representatives can occupy an important role in the fight against intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities, serving, among other things for constructive public discourses that reduce tensions within societies, doing so without prejudices with respect to the freedom of expression.
Education constitutes a fundamental instrument for the prevention and treatment of intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities, as well as the promotion of plural societies and the struggle against extremism. In this sense, the Principle Rectors of Toledo, in terms of religious education in public schools in the OSCE environment, will support, without a doubt, these efforts.
It is important that we mention the commitment assumed by the participating Member States, to obtain reliable and trustworthy information and statistics revolving around acts originated from the struggle against intolerance and discrimination, including those committed against Muslim communities. At the same time, it would be convenient for the participating Member States to transmit this information periodically to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (OIDDH), and that this information should be publicly accessible.
The legislation and application of the law are essential tools to combat against crimes and violent manifestations of intolerance and discrimination, including those committed against Muslim communities.
The office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OIDDH) can reinforce the labor of its Program for the Service of Tolerance and Anti-Discrimination, in particular to the assistance programs, among others, that concentrate on the struggle against intolerance towards Muslim communities. Furthermore, the OIDDH should pursue its cooperation with other OSCE institutions, as well as with other organizations such as the Three Personal Representatives relating to Intolerance, in material concerning intolerance and discrimination towards Muslim communities.
They should support the informal interchanges between experts of participating Member States of the OSCE, concerning positive practices as well as the work underway by international organizations and NGO’s in this sphere.
In this context, the Initiative of the Alliance of Civilizations, promoted by the United Nations, whose proposal is to facilitate harmonious dialogue that stresses the common denominator of different cultures and religions, for the High Representatives of the United Nations for the Alliance of Civilizations and the presentation of the Amplification Plan for the period of 2007-2009 during the Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of the Alliance celebrated this past September in New York.
http://www.mae.es/en/MenuPpal/Actualidad/Declaraciones+y+discursos/discursoministro20071010EN.htm
|
