Anti-Muslim hate crime

Although stereotypes against Muslims are centuries old, in recent years they have evolved and gained momentum under the conditions of the "war on terror", the global economic crisis and challenges related to the management of religious and cultural diversity. Anti-Muslim rhetoric often associates Muslims with terrorism and extremism, or portrays the presence of Muslim communities as a threat to national identity. Muslims are often portrayed as a monolithic group, whose culture is incompatible with human rights and democracy. ODIHR's reporting suggests anti-Muslim hate crimes and incidents increases following terrorist attacks, and on the anniversaries of such attacks. Attacks against mosques – particularly on Fridays and religious holidays – including leaving the remains of pigs outside mosques, community centres and Muslim families' homes, as well as attacks against women wearing headscarves, are among the anti-Muslim hate incidents commonly reported.

Beginning in 2002, OSCE participating States have explicitly condemned acts of discrimination and violence against Muslims and firmly rejected the identification of terrorism and extremism with any religion and culture. The Astana declaration (2010) stressed that international developments and political issues cannot justify any form of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims, and encouraged participating States to challenge anti-Muslim prejudice and stereotypes.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes can be recorded under a variety of categories, including anti-religious hate crimes, crimes motivated by ethnic bias, and can also be reported separately or as racist and xenophobic crime. Muslim NGOs are developing their monitoring capacity through outreach and online reporting, in recognition of the importance of hate crime monitoring as an important advocacy tool. However, a lack of trust in the authorities in some countries also lead to under-reporting of anti-Muslim hate crime, and this appears to have a significant influence on hate crime figures reported to ODIHR.

ODIHR TANDIS

Reports

Overview of incidents reported by civil society

Attacks Against People Attacks Against Property Total
Violent Attacks Threats
231 99 347 677

International Reports

Austria

Following its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Austrian authorities supported recommendations to review national hate crime legislation, to establish a system to collect comprehensive data on reported hate crimes, prosecutions and sentences, and to effectively investigate and prosecute hate crimes, including those motivated by intolerance against Muslims.

Czech Republic

In its "Concluding observations on the combined tenth and eleventh periodic reports of the Czech Republic", the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) emphasized the importance of effectively investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. CERD also expressed its concern about continued racially motivated violence against Roma people and on the increase in racially-motivated violence against Muslim communities.

Georgia

In its fourth report on Georgia, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommended the creation of a unified hate crime database, the creation of a police unit specialized in hate crime, and that training programmes for law enforcement officials and the judiciary be augmented and include information on hate crime against LGBT people. ECRI also called for the effective investigation and prosecution of all hate crime cases, notably hate crimes against Muslims.

OSCE Region

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a number of resolutions on hate crime issues, including Resolution 2069 on recognizing and preventing neo-racism, which recommends that hate crime legislation include the protected characteristics of race, colour, ethnicity, language, religion, disability, migrant status, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. PACE also recognized the issue of under-reporting by calling for more systematic reporting of hate crimes.

The report of the European Commission’s first annual colloquium on fundamental rights, "Tolerance and respect: preventing and combating anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred in Europe", recognized the need, in the context of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes, to ensure the implementation of hate crime laws, the protection of victims, and to improve the collection and recording of data on hate crimes.