Prejudices

One of the main problems pointed out in the Amnesty International report, published on Monday, was the inadequate prosecution of hate crimes in the country.

Among the groups suffering from prejudice who later become crime victims are asylum seekers, migrants, Muslims and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Time flies... It was nearly a decade ago that Turkish and Spanish leaders institutionalized their efforts to build interfaith dialogue and peace between the Islamic and Western worlds. Since then, at least a couple of million (overwhelmingly Muslim) people have been killed (overwhelmingly by Muslims in sectarian and other wars).

A senior European commissioner warned Feb. 2 about rising levels of  extremism and intolerance across the 28-nation bloc, targeting Jews, Muslims, homosexuals and even women.        

PRAGUE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic participated in the roundtable debate in Prague on Tuesday to adopt the Prague declaration on the fight against anti-Semitism and hate crimes, and she said that everyone should join the fight against anti-Semitism and all other modes of discrimination.

I have completely opposite views from President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on many topics, but I watch in admiration his political genius, his way of interpreting politics, his economic determination and also his ?leadership stance.?

I can?t help it?

Sweden's ambassador to Ankara urges for a balanced approach in dealing with Islamist terror attacks, saying a distinction should be made between criticizing Islamist extremists and Islamophobia Nobody should stigmatize all Muslims for the crimes committed by fundamentalists, yet nobody should label criticism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its methods as Islamophob

The German authorities have banned the carrying of posters that had cartoons insulting the Prophet Muhammad at the Leipzig rally organized by the fanatical anti-Islam PEGIDA movement.

Isn't this a restriction of freedom of expression? Leipzig German authorities explained it as such: "We think that, after the Paris incidents, these caricatures will be tools for provocation."

The former head of Turkey's top religious body has accused Muslims of contributing to the rise of Islamophobia around the world, while lamenting the declining number of pious people in Turkey.

Former Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) head Ali Bardako?lu accused "some members" of the Muslim community of contributing to the rise of Islamophobia around the world.

The terror attacks in Paris have resulted in much commentary among Islamists and Islamic intellectuals and commentators in Turkey. There is little that is new in Islamist quarters, of course. One reads the usual litany, if one may use the term, blaming the West for crimes against the Islamic world and its wily designs on the Middle East.

Islamophobia is not the only right-wing trend rising in Europe: It is just one of the results of escalating xenophobia as anti-Semitic tendencies are also on the rise, according to Turkey's ambassador to France With Turkish authorities constantly warning of Islamophobia, the Turkish Ambassador to Paris, Hakk?