(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "Look at the numerous Muslim doctors and engineers from Iran, who live as good citizens all over Europe,” Armin Laschet, former minister for integration in the German federal state of North Rhine Westphalia, told Inter Press Service (IPS) on Monday, August 15.
"You cannot accuse a Muslim person in Germany, who worships her faith, who respects ritual such as Ramadan, and who raises her children respecting God, and otherwise leads an exemplary civil life in our country".
At least 76 people were killed and scores injured in twin attacks on a government building and a youth training camp in Oslo last month. The attacker, Anders Behring Breivik, said his assault was a self-styled mission to save European “Christendom” from Islam.
He said that his actions aimed to "change Norwegian society" which he saw as being undermined by immigration and multiculturalism. The attacks were seen as a direct result of long years of anti-Islam rhetoric by conservative governments and center-right parties in Europe.
Several European leaders have been critical of multiculturalism, giving ammunition to far-right groups to intensify their rhetoric against Muslim immigrants.
Earlier this year, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that multiculturalism has failed and called for Europe to join hands to fight what he describes as “radicalization” of Muslim youth in European societies.
Cameron’s comments were immediately welcomed by Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National Party. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also said that attempts to create a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed”.
After his country was hit by two deadly attacks last month, the leader of the local conservative Norwegian party compared the anti-Islam rhetoric to 1930s anti-Jews fascism.
“The way European extremist anti-Islam groups today denigrate Muslims and Islam is very similar to the way Fascist and right wing parties denigrated Jews in the 1930s,” Erna Solberg said.
In post 9/11 Europe, right-wing parties in several European countries have been playing the Muslim immigration card to make election gains.
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party won 27 percent of votes in regional polls last year through an anti-Muslim campaign that included an internet game allowing players to shoot at virtual mosque minarets.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity has plummeted over climbing unemployment and painful spending cuts, have worked hard to court the far-right supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sarkozy’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party started a debate last April on the role of Islam in secular France.
In the Netherlands, the right-wing party of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders secured promises for a clampdown on immigration and a face-veil ban in exchange for supporting the formation of a new government.
Italy also saw the rise of anti-immigration Northern League, which is a vocal opponent to the construction of mosques in the southern European country.
Denouncing the political anti-Islam rhetoric, Hans Leyendecker, a prominent German reporter, appealed to the public "not to fall into this propaganda trap" of anti-Muslim movements in Europe.
"These hot debates on the risks of Islamic terror most of the time ignore the basic fact, that its attacks occur mostly in Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia, and that its main victims are Muslims themselves," Leyendecker wrote in an op-ed piece in the daily newspaper Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"In 2010, there were some 250 terror attacks in Europe. Only three of these attacks had an Islamic background."
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