14 June, 2006
An influential Muslim scholar has said that anti-Islamic feeling in Europe was beginning to resemble the spread of anti-Semitism in the decades before World War II. "My feeling is that what we heard in the 1920s and '30s about the Jews is coming back about the Muslims,'' the Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan, who heads the European Muslim Network, said. Ramadan made headlines after US authorities cited security reasons for revoking his entry visa in 2004. He is a critic of America's role in Iraq, but claims to be a moderate who opposes terrorism and does not support Islamic extremism. Ramadan was one of several speakers who warned of growing anti-Islamic feeling in Europe at a conference organized by a Brussels think-tank, the European Policy Centre. He said the French ban on the wearing of religious symbols in public schools – which affected girls wearing Islamic head covering – and tighter immigration controls introduced by European governments specifically targeted Muslims.
