Ahlul Bayt News Agency ; iThe chairwoman of the Berlin-based Muslim Academy in Germany, Hamideh Mohagheghi said all Muslims living in western countries should join hands in creating such a rights association.
Part of the problems of Muslims in the West, including Germany, is the fact that they lack such a rights organization, she added.
Mohagheghi who is part of the so-called German Islam Conference which is involved
in routine talks with the German government on the situation of Muslims in that country, downplayed the growing problem of Islamophobia in the West by saying she did not feel that Muslims were restricted in their freedom to practice their religion.
Her remarks run counter to statements by especially European Muslim leaders who have time and again said Islamophobia had become a major dilemma for millions of Muslims in their country.
A professor at the University of Paderborn, Mohagheghi joined other German Muslims by signing a recent open letter for German President Christian Wulff, urging him to confront Islamophobia in the country.
The group pointed out that German Muslims were continuing to face everyday
inequalities and further discrimination which has been exacerbated by the recent publishing of a book which accuses Muslims of undermining German society.
The German Muslims thinkers stressed many Muslims were feeling alienated in society.
The intellectuals said Muslims were confronted with daily negative headlines in the nation's press as a result of the worsening anti-Muslim mood in Germany.
They reminded the German president he had pledged to bring Muslims and
non-Muslims together when taking office two months ago.
Germany's 4.3 million Muslims have increasingly felt frustrated over the government's reluctance to seriously combat Islamophobia.
They have also accused German political leaders of instrumentalizing Islamophobia for their own political objectives.
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