The European Union’s commission for fighting anti-Muslim hatred has remained vacant since June 2021; also EU has never given a positive reply about the refilling of the empty seat.
EUobserver, a European online newspaper, reported that they approached the commission multiple times and asked about how come the post has stayed vacant so long, the reply was obscure. EUobserver is being told by the EU spokesperson on October 26 that the formalities to fill the vacancy are going on. The response was the same as the exact question raised in February 2022.
In accordance with the Workshop conducted by the anti-Muslim hatred commission on 25 June 2019 in Madrid, the major objectives of the commission can be summarized as follows,
1 )Step up the recording of anti-Muslim hate crime data and support victims.
2) Raise awareness and respond to anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic narratives in public opinion, politics, and the media, in particular online.
3) Address discrimination of Muslims or individuals perceived as being Muslim in access to jobs and services, and the intersectional dimension of discrimination affecting in particular Muslim women.
In June, 41 NGOs from across Europe published an open letter that stated the EU institutions had a track record of failing to address the structural and institutional discrimination against Muslim minorities in Europe.
At the same time, the commission for combatting anti-Semitism and anti-racism has been working smoothly for a long period with the help of the European Union’s funding. Earlier the commission for fighting anti-Semitism appointed three staff in 2020, and two were appointed for the anti-racism fight, but none was appointed to fight against anti-Muslim hate. Moreover, 180000 euros were allotted to the coordinators to spend on studies, meetings, and workshops related to the work. Even though, the authorities are not ready to hire an anti – Muslim hatred coordinator for the vacant seat.
The chair for combatting anti-Muslim hatred has an excellent track record of conducting many workshops, roundtable conferences, and many virtual conferences during the past years. Thus the act of purposefully delaying the filling of the vacant chair can be estimated as a clear case of ‘Institutional violence’ of the European Commission against its own branch.
