Racism on rise in EU, report warns

Islamophobia and anti-Semitism fuelled by the 11 September attacks and the Middle East conflict are in danger of becoming acceptable, the European Union's racism watchdog warned yesterday.

In a report, the European monitoring centre on racism and xenophobia (EUMC) called on leaders of the 15 nations to deal with the social and economic factors it said were fuelling racial prejudice.

"Now it seems legitimate to have anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic views because people have mixed up the whole issue," Bob Purkiss, the chairman of the EUMC, said. "The danger is ... how it has now embedded itself."

After the attacks in the United States, people who "looked Muslim", mainly women wearing headscarves, were victims of anti-Islamic sentiment, the report said.

More violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and social and economic problems inside the EU resulted in a wave of attacks on Jews and synagogues, it added.

EU leaders were quick to condemn racist aggression against both religious minorities and call for dialogue, it said. Beate Winkler, director of the Vienna-based agency, said: "Immediately after 11 September, we had a lot of positive initiatives by politicians, but it did not continue."

The report said racism and xenophobia were expressions of people's fears on issues such as globalisation, unemployment and Islam, which the media and politicians failed to present in a balanced way.

Mr Purkiss also said the EU had to deal with the broader issue of immigration, which he said was needed to spur economic growth because of labour shortages caused by an ageing population. "We need that wealth to pay for pensions," he added.