Al-Azhar calls for countries to enact laws criminalising Islamophobia

Jehad El-Sayed , Thursday 16 Jun 2022

The Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism (AOCE) called on Thursday for countries to enact laws that guarantee the protection of Muslims and mosques and criminalise Islamophobia.

Al-Azhar Observatory (Photo: Al-Ahram)

 

The AOCE stated on its official Facebook page that it is making this call in response to increased hate speech against Islam and Muslims in many European societies.

According to a report by the nongovernmental organisation Brandeilig.org, 768 attacks on mosques in Germany were recorded between January 2014 and June 2021, an average of one attack every two days.

Moreover, according to the AOCE, the report stated that 83 Islamophobic crimes were recorded in Germany during the first quarter of 2022, in which five people were injured.

The AOCE said that these “shocking numbers” led to the Left Party submitting a bill that aimed to strengthen the security of mosques and protect imams from attack, but the government rejected the bill. Only 69 out of 709 MPs voted in favour of the bill, the AOCE said.

In 2015, Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta announced the establishment of an “Islamophobia observatory” tasked with observing the phenomenon and making recommendations on how to address it, minimise its effect on Muslims abroad, and correct false concepts about Islam.

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