Bell was director of the delegation in Jerusalem of the organization devoted to solving conflicts called ‘Search for Common Ground’. During that period, he articulated together with Palestinians, Israelis and other international experts a system which would do it possible to manage the Old City together, with sacred places for Jewish, Muslim as well as Christian people. He has also been a Canadian and UN diplomat, with missions in Lebanon, Egypt or Irak, among others.

Now he is director and co-founder of The Conciliators Guild in London. There he applies his experience in a project which aims to “bring humanity back to politics” and start a path for dialogue. “It is important to understand how we think, what we need in life and what we are after. If we don’t understand those absolute basics, life can go off in any direction, including one manipulated by political leaders, by social media… we easily fall into traps”, he tells Salam Plan on the phone during this interview.

John Bell speaks to Salam Plan when ceasefire has finally begun after eleven days of escalation of the conflict, which also caused clashes to some extent in countries like the UK or Spain. Be it either through hate speech, graffities on religious sites, actions like the cars honking against Jewish citizens in London… British monitors said antisemitic hate increased 500% and islamophobic hate 430% these days in the UK.

“If we don’t understand what we need in life and what we are after, life can go off in any direction, including one manipulated by political leaders, by social media… we easily fall into traps”

This conflict goes beyond Middle East. Why does it matter so much to citizens around the world?

I think it matters a lot because of several reasons all combined. The first is, this has gone on for too long. It’s decades that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unresolved, and the Palestinians are under occupation. And people are fed up with it, especially as it evolved into a situation where, despite Jewish and Israelis sense of victimization, most people view Israel as a powerful country and the Palestinians as a very weak people. And therefore, the oppression is clear. It’s just time.

The other issue, though, is a bit deeper. I think it’s in people’s psyches, obviously in the Middle East, obviously in Israel-Palestine, but in the West. And in the West, because actually Israel’s creation is very deeply linked to the West. Both in terms of why Jews went to that area to begin with and the Western world helping to create Israel. So, all this is very in our psyches: there is guilt, there is anger, there’s a sense of injustice perpetrated against the Palestinians… And I think all that is playing out.

I’ll mention other two factors, that, I think, are overlaying into it: one is that there is now a growing trend across the world, global, for fighting against injustice. Whether it’s racism in the United States, injustice for refugees or injustice against the Palestinians. This is a growing trend. What I see is increased attention and concern for the Palestinians from that regard, and they are oppressed people, in my personal view.

Another more practical point, is that Jerusalem is very important. It’s symbolically more potent. And let’s not forget, that although the battle, the extreme violence was in Gaza, it was not really about Gaza: it was really about Jerusalem. Jerusalem triggered it, what Israelis were trying to do in Jerusalem triggered it, Hamas fired its first missiles about Jerusalem… Jerusalem is the symbolic totem of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and even in a religious-political level.

“Putting order into our mental house is a requisite for being, may be, more intelligently religious”

Politics and religion get mixed in this conflict, which -in the end- leads to violence and religion to get mixed as well. How could that be preventable?

In the Middle East, for Israelis in my view as well, identity is on spectrum which can be very, very purely political -example: a communist in Lebanon or Irak-, to the political religious, where ones heritage, whether Muslim, Jewish, or in fact even Christian, weaves into a political ideology.

This is part of the landscape of the Middle East, of today. For the moment, an unavoidable dimension of the nature of Middle East politics is that every single country has religious-political parties, where the party uses religious heritage to develop the political ideology.

Does this reflect well on the original premises of the religion? In my personal view, no. But many would disagree with me: they view their religion as a social justice mission as much a personal mission.

So, I think, your question is rather huge. If you want to disentangle the role of religion in politics, one has to go back to what is the actual purpose of religion to begin with. Religions in the Middle East, even scripturely, all of them -more Islam and Judaism- have had social political components described. So, it’s easy for followers to grab those and run with them in a political fashion. It’s not new, this has been done for ages.

Christians’ scripture is a bit less so, the pure scripture, but we have seen also Christians run with these things at a political level, whether it’s Crusades or otherwise.

So, the disentangle that you are talking about, requires a lot of what I call cultural work in the region to a much deeper understanding of the purpose of religion and its outlook at the world. In my view, this is a kind of hijack of religion.

Where should that ‘cultural work’ start?

I think it’s wrong for me to stall people with ‘here is a formula, run with it’. Because that is actually the opposite of what needs to be done. I think what is important, and this is the purpose of my organization ‘The Conciliators Guild’, to understand how we think, and what we need in life and what we are after. If we don’t understand those absolute basics, life can go off in any direction, including one manipulated by political leaders, by social media… we easily fall into traps.

So, I think that cultural work needs to begin with a much, much -and I’ll say ‘much’ ten times-, much better understanding of the human behaviour. Why we do X and not Y, why we think we are doing X and we are doing Y… We are really unclear about these things, we are chaotic. Putting order into our mental house is a requisite for being, may be, more intelligently religious. People have a lot of assumptions of what religion is, what its purpose is, those who play it politically as we are seeing…

I mean, look at a living example. I am personally against it, but there some of the Jews taking homes in Sheikh Jarrah or who are preventing (Muslim) Palestinians from accessing Al Aqsa mosque, which led to this whole conflict raise… Some, some [he emphathizes] where acting on a religious basis. Meaning in their religion this is correct. I don’t agree with this, but one has to wonder with them, with them what are they trying to achieve, why is it that they’re going about things this way.

These questions are not asked sufficiently, so I think the cultural work begins there. I don’t think it begins by law. It’s necessary, but in a way it’s a superficial answer. Human behaviour is more important than law and rights.

“What matters, is that a political solution is found that satisfies core needs on both sides sufficiently, but not infinitely”

Jerusalem is a holy city for Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike. It should be a place for peace, as all these religions stand for it, and yet it is a place of conflict instead.

That’s right. I have lived in Jerusalem, and it’s a city which I am very, very fond of and scared of, both at the same time.

Jerusalem is what you say it is: it is a triptrych faith city, it’s also potentially and probably should be the capital of both Israel and Palestine. And it’s also a city, meaning people just live there and they need water, electricity, schools… There are human beings living there who need normal functioning.

It’s all those things, and it needs to be attended to in all those levels.

My view is, and it is very difficult to get people off this idea, but I think it’s worth working on: as long as any single group wishes to look at Jerusalem as only theirs, the exclusivity dimension, it will be a problem. We’re sharing it in some fashion or another, a tremendous amount of work needs to be done there as the how.

Jerusalem doesn’t belong to any of the three and to all of the three. And if people can’t get their minds around that statement, with its own contradiction, people have to learn to live with these contradictions. People want simple answers: ‘this is mine’, end of story. I just think that is a fantastic emblem of how we need to think differently in the future.

You have been working for years in different projects and diplomatic delegations for peace. One of them was with the NGO ‘Search for Common Ground’ in Jerusalem. What did you find?

I worked on a very long project in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is important, because that is where all the major holy sights are. What we did was a project developed by Canadians working closely with Israelis, Palestinians and other international experts. We designed a ‘special governance system’ for Jerusalem Old City, with the heavy involvement of third parties, non-Israelis, non-Palestinians in the security, the archeology and some of the other managements of the hot issues in the Old City. I still think that has value, it is part of the mix.

Further work needs to be done on something, which is very difficult to tackle, but critical: how does one look at the religious attachments to the Old City and the holy sights in a different way. And then, how does that translate politically. I know people who have begun to work on it. Whatever is done on that level, it needs to pursue mutual needs’ satisfaction: Jews, Muslims and Christians, all have to be satisfied sufficiently in the Old City through that results.

Is that possible? My view is yes. It can be. The issue is not if they can be satisfied, the issue is how extensive are their demands. If their demands are too intense, too extreme, than you cannot get mutual needs’ satisfaction. One party dissatisfied, and that’s a cause of conflict. Then, it’s a law of life: you will have fighting, killing. Whereas if you do have an arrangement that is satisfactory to the basic needs of the sides, then there would be much more calm.

“As long as any single group wishes to look at Jerusalem as only theirs, it will be a problem. We’re sharing it in some fashion or another; work needs to be done there as the how”

Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmud Abbas have been the leaders of both sides for very long now, and with no elections on the Palestinian side and with too many elections in Israel (five general elections in just a couple of years). Do you think new leaders could possibly help to restart a path to peace?

Yes, with all respect to these individuals. I hope that Palestinians and Israelis now know who these people are and what they can do. Because they have been around for a while, so they’re know entities. Their capacities, their wishes, their strengths and weaknesses are known. And we are where we are. Therefore, I would say yes: there is absolutely a need for new blood.

There are no magical solutions, new leaders do not equal sudden positive, because societies are always fragmented and divided and fight each other. That risk exists on both sides, that new leaders may improve things, but it can also be -if they are strong enough- we may find a lot of problems on both societies too. Nevertheless, I don’t think these current leaders are providing any more value at it. So the risk has to be taken, despite what I said.

What, do you think, would be the first step for the stuck peace process to start again?

I’ve always felt that the idea that Palestinians can a have a normal democratic electoral system while occupation remains, is false. Because the occupation creates so many strange, aberrant behavior patterns for the Palestinians. Any people, not only Palestinians, would not respond to normally. Checkpoints, control over people’s lifes, inhability to make decisions on most basic things in life, such as economics, very limited control over your future… do not equal the right basis for a democratic system.

But, and I blame the West here, it’s the West which mixes everything up. It’s Oslo [Accords of 1993] and the West, and half measures on occupation plus half measures on democracy… I don’t think it’s the right sequence. I think what needs to be done is the creation of a Palestinian state first, first! So, there is clarity on that, and then the Palestinians can go about running their own lifes, which is what an election is about, after all. I think we are still suffering of the assumptions of Oslo, twenty years on, which were wrong, in my view.

“I’ve always felt that the idea that Palestinians can a have a normal democratic electoral system while occupation remains, is false”

Would you stand for a two-state solution, as the UN recommends?

I think the two-state solution has become a slogan, and I think the one-state solution is a slogan. What matters to me, for the Palestinian people and for the Israeli people, is that a political solution is found that satisfies their core needs on both sides sufficiently, but not infinitely.

You cannot have everything, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You have to give stuff up. Giving stuff up, in my view, means because Israelis currently have a lot more than Palestinians, Israelis have to give things up. This is for me a given. And it’s not easy for Israelis for a million reasons, but they have to face that to have stable neighbours, Palestinians and beyond, they need to give things up.

Whether that plays out as a two-state or a one-state, or two-state plus…, or one-state minus…or a confederation. I don’t care. I can probably take a guess as how it is gonna play out, if it ever plays out, if the political will is there. But do I care about the ultimate form? No. What I care is that the peoples on both sides are satisfied sufficiently, not totally, because they won’t be.

So, is it likely to be the classical two-state? No. Is it gonna be one-state? No. Probably something in between.

And will we see it in our lifetimes?

I have a feeling you are younger than me. You might see it, I am unlikely to see it. But, may be, I might see progress.

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La entrada John Bell, former mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “There is a kind of hijack of religion” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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Trump said the 1st amendment -which stands for freedom of belief and speech- makes clear “that our rights do not come from our government; they come from God”. He regretted “80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned”.

The percentage he cites comes from a report from the Pew Research Center in 2016, where this independent think tank also mentions Muslims being targeted in the United States and directly links this to the current present president of the country:

“In the United States, Muslims were the targets of derogatory rhetoric and proposed discrimination. In July, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump criticized the parents of a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq (…). Later in the year, President-elect Trump appeared to stand by plans for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States and a proposed requirement that U.S. Muslims register in a database”, the report summary reads.

>>> You may also read: Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim<<<

But Donald Trump’s speech on religious freedom this Monday at the UN ignored his rethoric and measures against Muslims: “As we speak, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Yazidis and many other people of faith are being jailed, sanctioned, tortured and even murdered, often at the hands of their own government, simply for expressing their deeply held religious beliefs. So hard to believe”.

He called upon all the countries of the world “to end religious persecution”, “repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”. The US president assured: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities and always has been”.

“Repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”

What he did not mention was the “temporary ban” on Muslims he promised to implement if he became president and which finally has gotten a version of it for some Muslim majority countries plus Venezuela and North Korea after the judges declared his first travel ban illegal.

He recalled recent “evil attacks” against worshippers in sinagogues in the US, in mosques in New Zealand and churches in Sri Lanka and urged every nation “to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities”. “There cannot be greater crime than that”, he said.

>>> You may also read: Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS <<<

Trump announced a coalition of US businesses for the protection of “all faiths” in the workplace, although he did not go into detail. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs”, he pointed out before saying to the victims of religious persecution that the US “will always stay at your side”.

Last July Donald Trump held a short meeting with people who survived religious persecution worldwide. Sitting on his chair at the Oval Office and surrounded by them, he talked with them in front of the cameras (watch White House video).

The victims were grateful for the opportunity to be listened, like Farid Ahmed, a victim of the Christchurch attacks against Muslims who became known after publicly forgiving the terrorist. But there were also awkward moments during the meeting with Trump, such as when a Rohingya refugee asked him for solutions to go back home after being forced to flee to Bangladesh together with another 740,000 Muslims since 2017. “Where is that exactly?”, Trump asked. “Burma”, an official had to clarify (meaning the state nowadays known as Myanmar). Or like when he asked Nobel Peace Prize Nadia Murad why she obtained the award. She is a Yazidi woman survivor of ISIS genocide against this religious community who brought up attention worldwide about these mass killings, mainly in Iraq.

The law known as “Muslim ban” or “Travel ban” finally included countries which are not Muslim majority nations: North Korea and Venezuela. But it kept Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Iran among those with restrictions, including no travel at all for Syrians and North Korea people. Iraq and Sudan, which where among the countries in the first executive order, where finally dropped.

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La entrada Trump in the UN: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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She has been a member of Angela Merkel‘s Council of Ministers since the beginning of the Chancellor’s Office in Germany in 2005. She has been Minister of Defense since December 2013 and was Merkel’s right-hand woman in the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU) since November 2010. Before Defense, she led the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, and previously the Ministry of Family during one term each.

On her new Twitter account, Von der Leyen defines herself as “mother of seven [children], born in Brussels and European at heart”. In Europe there are almost 26 million Muslim citizens, according to a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center. This has been the political evolution of Von der Leyen with respect to this part of society:

An agreement for ​​value education only among Christians

At the beginning of her political career at federal level in Germany, the then minister for Family, promoted an “agreement for [value] education” ​​only with representatives of the Catholic and Protestant faith. It was in 2006 and both the Social Democrats and the Central Council of Muslims in the country criticized the initiative, considering it biased.

“The same way we learn our mother tongue, we have to first clarify our own position so that later we can open ourselves to other religions,” Von der Leyen justified. But she did not convince even all the members of her party. “If it’s about education, it’s also about an intercultural dimension,” the president of the Turkish-German forum of the CDU and Muslim politician Bülent Arslan, told Spiegel Online.

The policy was also criticized for limiting the educational alliance to religious organizations, without taking into account those who do not profess any faith nor did she invite teachers and educators to take part in the initiative.

Rabbis and imams in the army

As Minister of Defense, in November 2015 she was open to include imams as spiritual advisors in the Army for those soldiers who profess Islam, the Die Welt newspaper reported.

Five years later, this issue has been put on the table again, with the arrival of rabbis as spiritual advisers in a pilot project, as reported by the German media last April. Defense has committed to also incorporate imams, although it has not given a date to specify this measure and has explained that there is not a single Muslim body with which to make the necessary agreement.

Ursula von der Leyen argued that the measure – very much discussed – was an “important signal”. “Precisely in times in which anti-Semitism, religious polarization and narrow-mindedness in many places are booming,” the candidate to chair the European Commission found it important to also provide Muslim and Jewish soldiers spiritual advice, just as Catholics and Protestants already did, Deutsche Welle informed. She acknowledged that “they have expressed this desire for a long time and it is a justified wish”.

There are approximately 3,000 Muslim troops in the German Army and some 300 Jews, in addition to some 53,000 Protestant soldiers and 41,000 Catholics, according to official estimates.

Muslim soldiers, “indispensable” for missions abroad

In Germany there are between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims, according to official figures. In an interview in 2016, Von der Leyen tried to value German Muslim soldiers when asked about a “multicultural” army. “We have soldiers [of] Turkish, African or Arab [origin] and many German-Russians. In missions abroad we currently have some 170 Muslim soldiers. They are indispensable. With their knowledge of the language and culture, they provide us with access to the corresponding population, “she said to the Berliner Morgenpost.

Although this way she linked Islam to migration, and putting Muslims as foreigners is one of the discriminatory elements denounced by the European experts on islamophobia -like the Runnymede Trust-, it is necessary to indicate that the current leader of her party and its Spokesman in the Bundestag have stressed that Muslims are part of Germany just like any other person of another faith. Von der Leyen has spoken publicly in favor of “diversity” in society.

The much-talked-about visit to Saudi Arabia, without hijab

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La entrada Ursula von der Leyen and her view on Muslims in Europe se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Before taking this position, Chiamparino had been working on European policies on how to combat racism and xenophobia, for the last three years particularly on the area of tackling hate speech online. For him it is key that minority groups are heard and taken into account in the European Commission, baring in mind that there are around 26 million Muslims in Europe, many of them being European Muslims.

Chiamparino organized a workshop held recently in Madrid together with the Spanish government where around 120 actors from civil society and public officials came together to discuss about synergies and good practices on tackling Islamophobia in the European Union. His team helped to bring together a diversity of actors from all over the EU, ranging from human rights associations, Muslim associations or academe to government officials or police officers tackling hate crime. He spoke to Salam Plan for this interview just after the one and half-day workshop, in which this website against hate was also invited to take part.

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What does your position as head of the European Commission’s unit to tackle Islamophobia mean?

The key role of the coordinator to combat anti-Muslim hatred is to ensure that the different Commission services are involved from different angles which might be relevant to fight against intolerance, discrimination and hatred against Muslims. That could be from the side of hate crime, potential responses, on the side of education with the tools that we have, types of funding, for example, or other areas which might be relevant. So, ensuring a mainstream; also the need to protect the rights and to tackle forms of racism and intolerance.

The other main role that I have is to be a sort of contact, for both society organizations from the ground, to transmit messages from things that are happening on the ground to the political sphere of the European Commission, as well as for national authorities and local authorities, when it comes to how to bring together the relevant actors to tackle intolerance, discrimination and hatred against Muslims.

So, in short, it is a facilitator role in a way, trying to bring together all the different actors into this fight.

“There is a general societal challenge, in terms of dominant narratives and how we can promote alternative, positive narratives to those who spread intolerance, hatred, rejection”

More than 100 actors gathered in Madrid to speak about strategies and the needs and challenges to fight Islamophobia. What do you take with you from this meeting?

You might say numbers are not important, but I think having a full room of people in a workshop, in a meeting that was held in a Government building and hosted by public authorities and the fact that these people were coming from the large majority of the Member States, and they were coming from both grass roots organizations working on the ground and from national or local authorities… they were in the same room, they were in the same groups discussing about how to cooperate or to find ways to work together. That was in itself a key achievement of this meeting: having people in the same room talking about concrete forms of cooperation.

The outcomes are homework for everyone, including the Commission of course, and other public authorities to convene platforms open to civil society actors on how to find responses in the different areas. For example, training the police to recognize islamophobic hate crime or how to work together with the equality bodies and to ensure a mechanism of cooperation between civil society and political bodies and prosecution of cases.

During this workshop, Muslims’ associations and also other civil society associations showed on Islamophobia being also in the political discourse. What can the European Commission do in that respect, especially given the new spectrum in the European Parliament?

I think there is, on the one side, a general societal challenge, in terms of dominant narratives and how we can promote alternative, positive narratives to those who spread intolerance, hatred, rejection, etcetera.

What we can do is to continue to work in an area where we have been working a lot on, for example in the online sphere, so how to promote positive narratives of tolerance online.

In addition, the challenge is to transmit the message that this is not a fight that we need to take for one group: for Muslims, for Jews or Roma people or LGBT people, but we need to do it for a model of society that we want. In that sense, I think there might be several allies among the political community as well about a common message: that it is about a model of society based on non-discrimination, tolerance -that is at stake and we need to promote and protect in the future.

“We are all part of the same, plural society. I am personally non- Muslim, but I value a society where Muslims, or other groups, are living next to me and that the school of my children reflects such a mix”

Working specifically on Islamophobia, what do Muslims mean to you? What would you tell non-Muslim people who are afraid or spread hate?

For me it is quite simple: we are all part of the same, plural society. I am personally non- Muslim, but I value a society where Muslims, or other groups, are living next to me and that the school of my children reflects such a mix. The fact of not being part of the community makes me feel an even stronger responsibility: I devote my work to help transmitting the voices of groups that often are not heard, that often don’t have spaces in which they are represented and that don’t have access to policy making… hoping my work will soon not be needed anymore: it will mean more diversity, more tolerance.

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La entrada European Commission against Islamophobia: “This fight is not for one group: it is about the society that we want, based on non-discrimination” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

While being Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the socialist politician has expressed on more than one occasion his interest in tackling hatred and prejudice against Muslims, be it the 25 million Europeans who, it is estimated, follow this religion, or foreigners. There are two key statements he has made in this regard this year, which offer a hint to what his approach might be in regard to Islamophobia as the new head of European diplomacy:

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1. “Islam did not arrived in a rubber boat (…). It is part of European culture,” he said at the opening of a series of conferences entitled “Dialogue on open societies”, promoted by his Ministry in Casa Árabe, a Spanish public institution whose missions include the fight against Islamophobia.

The minister underlined that day, on January 14 of this year, that Spain is the part of Europe where Islam has been most lasting and remains “alive in language, in architecture, in Spanish demography.” In Spain, Muslims make up 4% of the population, with about 2 million Muslims and 43% of these being Spanish.

For Borrell, it is the presence of more than seven centuries of Islam in Spain that grants its country part of its character of “exceptionality” that is adduced in Europe. He stressed: “We must integrate the Islamic factor in an appropiate measure. Yes, there is an Arab [and Muslim] pillar in the European culture.”

Borrell said in that conference as well that “in the face of closed and xenophobic visions, we must bet on an open society” and regretted that in Spain “there are emerging parties that want Muslims to be considered enemies who must be expelled from the country.”

2. “We are studying – because it seems reasonable to us [the Spanish Administration]- that Islamophobia, like anti-Semitism, is considered a manifestation of hatred towards other human beings and receives the same kind of condemnation.”

This was Borrell’s response to Salam Plan in a press conference, when this website asked him about the possible specific classification of Islamophobia in the Spanish Penal Code or the separate registration of Islamophobic hate crimes in the statistics, in line with what United Nations and international experts ask for. It was during a press conference offered by the Spanish Foreign Minister after meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in Madrid last March.

“Together we have to share a fight against the messages of xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism … in general against hate messages. Join our struggles against terrorism and extremism, common enemy, “he had previously declared.

The need to legally reflect Islamophobia separately is clear to both the UN and the OSCE or the editors of the European Report on Islamophobia. “It would be necessary to know in how many cases have been prosecuted hate crimes against the Muslim community [to] know the seriousness and extent of this problem,” UN special rapporteur on the rights of minorities, Fernand de Varennes, explained after visiting Spain in January.

The breakdown by ethnic and religious groups in statistics of hate crimes for him is “indispensable”. The rapporteur, did not want to give an opinion on the need or not to penalize specifically Islamophobia in the Spanish law on that date, as he recognized he needed to study the Spanish situation more in depth before drawing a conclusion on that respect.

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La entrada New head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell against Islamophobia: “Islam did not arrive in a rubber boat: it is part of the European culture” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

She is cofounder and chair of Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), which works to empower these US citizens within their communities by sharing their stories and “normalizing” that one can be Muslim and American at the same time. Bottom line against stereotypes is as well: Muslims are not a “monolith”. MALA is the first organization to collect oral histories of Muslim Americans, which are then archived in the Library of Congress of the United States.

She avoids pointing at anyone specific with the finger but acknowledges that bigotry and hate not only against Muslims, but also against other minorities, has risen in recent years in the US. This week she is visiting Spain to share her experience at Madrid’s Casa Árabe and at Barcelona’s Blanquerna Observatory.

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What does being both Muslim and American mean nowadays?

Being Muslim and American is a chance and a space right now. We’re in interesting times. From my perspective, I was born and raised in the United States, both of my parents are Muslim, I identify as a Muslim, but I also come from a background where my siblings are married to a Catholic or a Hindu. I’ m first generation, I grew up with American values, but also with a strong sense of my Muslim heritage, culture and identity.

I think one of the things being Muslim and American right now is that we are living in one of the best countries, where there is freedom, there is ability to practice, to pick up your identities, to assimilate, whether you are first generation, whether you are refugee, whether you are immigrant or if you are fourth generation of converts.

I think the challenge right now in the United States is that there is discrimination, there is bigotry… With over 750 stories that we have collected in MALA over five years, one of the things which does come up is discrimination, issues with assimilation, dual identity or multiple identities, trying to find belonging, within your community and outside… The whole purpose of having pride in being Muslim and American is the cornerstone of our work, so that people can speak freely and openly about their own experiences, whatever it may be, whether you are secular, whether you are orthodox…

“Having pride in being Muslim and American is the cornerstone of our work”

Is it usually not possible to speak freely about one’s religion? Do people feel frightened to do so?

I don’t think they feel frightened. I think they feel more that, it’s almost like that’s just not my only layer of identity. I don’t just want to be known as a Muslim, I’m also Iranian, Turkish or Bosznian, and I’m also a female, and a mum… Muslim Americans, especially, are not a monolith. They’re one of the most diverse groups in the United States: socially, politically, economically… it’s the broadest social demographic [group].

Your siblings are married to a Catholic and a Hindu. With the current atmosphere, sometimes it seems this together living of different religions or beliefs is not possible, but they are a clear example that it is.

There is actually a quite large number of stories that we have collected of people of mixes heritage. One of the things that I have seen from my experience it that diversity and coexistence of Muslim Americans is phenomenal, wonderful, and it’s possible.

I have the impression that in previous years Muslims rather stayed silent and hid from telling others what their beliefs are. But this seems to be reversing now and Muslims are going public, like going out of the closet. Was there a need for it?

That’s actually a wonderful observation, and to be honest, when we started MALA we would get two types of people, that would be like ‘well, I’m Muslim, [but] I don’t want that label and I don’t want to identify myself, just because of all the baggage in the media, because I don’t want to be associated with this stereotype or this stereotype’.

I think that people now are a lot more at ease, because there is community cohesion, support, social media [and] people’s voices and representation is heard. People are a lot more forthcoming and also have, still, pride in saying that they are Muslim, which is beautiful, because you can be Muslim, American… you could have multiple layers of identity and you could still exist and that’s who you are, that’s who I am.

Zainab Khan presents herself as a “human being” who is Muslim, among many other things. © Salam Plan

Is it also, may be, the reaction to the hate speech of politicians like Donald Trump against Muslims?

I think that in the United States there is a very polarizing social-political climate. Hate crimes have been under increase, and not just for Muslims, but for Jewish people, for people of faith and for people of minority backgrounds.

There is a lot more need for representation in politics and public policy, in civic engagement… It’s wonderful to see Muslim Americans run for office and to see the richness of the diversity of elected officials that we have in the United States compared to other countries. But we still have a long way to go to continue to build bridges, to continue to show solidarity and social cohesion, and also to celebrate our differences and our similarities. When we look at both, I think that’s when we are able to really see that this is how we live together: with shared values.

“You can be Muslim, American, have multiple layers of identity and still exist”

Islamophobia is becoming the new normal, isn’t it?

Hate is never supposed to be the norm. And any type of bigotry, prejudices… that is something that we have to really grab by the horns and address it. The rhetoric around minorities, groups, communities… are labelling. Putting Muslim Americans as a monolith… These are all harmful towards society.

We can continue by showcasing the diversity, the leadership, the incredible amount of recognition and what communities have done… The Muslim American communities… it is a community of very highly educated resilient people.

What is the main prejudice you are tired of listening to and that you feel it is the main issue we all need to address?

That all Muslims are a monolith. That because you are a Muslim, you must be x, y and z. You must be ultra-rigid, or you must be an immigrant, or you must be a refugee, or you must be uneducated, or you must be close-minded. These are all prejudices that we hope to dispel and continue building bridges.

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La entrada Zainab Khan, mentor of Muslim Americans: “Muslims are not x, y and z. We are not a monolith” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

All three of them live in Berlin. They are part of a team that is working to build the first great sacred place that will host three religions and all the others which want to take part, welcoming atheists or agnostics as well. The doors of ‘House of One‘ will be wide open to everyone.

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“Every time I go to church, I think: ‘go back to the mosque,’ because I do not like church benches at all. It just seems super nice to sit on a rug, or lie down. I have already gone to mosques in which I have rested and in the church I find that it is often cold,” exemplifies Bohner, one of the pedagogical leaders of the House of One Foundation.

Her colleague Caliskan says: “Now I am studying the different schools of thoughts and traditions among the Jews, and the more you dig, the more comes out. I will prepare myself a scheme to have an overall perspective, but this wealth of traditions simply impresses me a lot“.

“Of course it is another religion and another tradition, but I understand it very well and I feel very close”

— Esther Hirsch

Hirsch, who belongs to the team of theologians responsible for the project, admits: “I can recognize very much of Judaism in Islam, in its thoughts, in the type of prayers … Of course it is another religion and another tradition, but I understand it very well and I feel very close,” admits Hirsch. She adds: “And about the Christians, I was surprised, because I thought I knew them very well, because I live here, in Germany, and there are more Christians than any other. But I also got to really know them thanks to the dialogue [between us]. And it seems very nice to me how they shape their community, how it’s a lot about doing things together and being together more than the theological aspect.”

The foundation stone of House of One will be laid in April 2020 in Petriplatz, Berlin. © Salam Plan

Three temples united for a better co-existence

At House of One there will be a synagogue, a mosque and a church under the same roof, although in different rooms. They will be connected by a central hall to share celebrations, prayers, exhibitions, concerts and -above all, exchange ideas and get to know each other better. There will also be space for a café, a library, meeting rooms …

A 138-feet high tower will allow visitors – despite its discreet height – to have a panoramic view of downtown Berlin. And, if plans do not change, they will even be able to observe each one of the temples from above, since the ceilings will be glazed so that natural light illuminates the rooms completely.

“Light is something that unites the three religions, but also the meeting, a place to meet. [It is about]  individual parishes being able to meet, but also having a meeting place in the center for everyone,” Bohner explains. “It is important that from the outside it is not recognizable whether it is a mosque, a church or a synagogue, so that we focus on what really matters: opening paths to the other,” adds Caliskan, who is also the pedagogical head of the plan. Another essential part of the project is that each sacred room will be open to visitors of other beliefs or without them, says Hirsch.

“It is important that from the outside it is not recognizable whether it is a mosque, a church or a synagogue, so that we focus on what really matters: opening paths to the other”

— Cagatay Caliskan

The project is being planned to the smallest detail of the building. Within each of the religions which were mentioned, there are different branches or schools of thoughts and there can be no issue left unresolved, because the aim is that everyone can feel at home while they coexist with people who do not think the same in some aspects.

Thus, for example, the mizbeaj (altar) of the synagogue will have to be movable, since for Jews it must have one or another location according to which school they belong to. In some cases they celebrate the prayer with the altar in the center of the room; in others, they need it next to the wall … Or in the case of Jews and Muslims, some prefer the prayer without separation between the gender and others need separated spaces. Or Protestants avoid religious images and decoration in their churches, while Catholics do prefer to celebrate their rites and faith with them.

There is so much detail to think about, that they keep on thinking about some details of the building. In fact, it was just recently when it was decided that the building would not have side windows, but that all the natural light would enter from the top. The last change in the architectural project has been to incorporate an independent access for women’s prayer in the mosque, as there are people who prefer it that way within the Muslim community, Caliskan explains.

This is how House of One will look like from the inside. © KuehnMalvezzi

Every option is respected

Every option is respected. And it is not easy to reflect that in a building. The Kuehn Malvezzi studio, which won the tender for its construction, works hand in hand with representatives of the interreligious foundation so that they do not miss anything. And they have no choice but to re-plan the building often or add aspects that had not previously been taken into account.

The foundation stone will not be laid until April 2020, but the building plot was already put at their disposal by the Berlin Administration more than ten years ago. It is not just another building site of the many that remain free in the heart of the city, which is still architecturally recovering from the post-war period and the fall of the Wall that separated the Germans.

Now, in the Petriplatz, very close to the emblematic television tower of the city, you can see the foundations of a church demolished by the GDR, on which that communist regime built a parking lot. The little ruin that was hidden underground belongs to the umpteenth reconstruction of the first church that appears in the historical documents of Berlin, when the city was getting born in the Middle Ages. When the regional Administration found these foundations on public land, it asked a nearby parish what they wanted to do with that place, since it had belonged to the church in the past.

“Actually, we have enough churches. We want to do something new. The social structure of Berlin has changed a lot: we have to involve other religions”

“Actually, we have enough churches. We want to do something new (…). The social structure of Berlin has changed a lot: we have to involve other religions,” they replied. And they looked for partners without even knowing exactly what to do with that piece of land at first. It was not the big institutions, but small parishes or movements that ended up coming together and devised a project of coexistence in peace that now takes shape. The ruins of the last church which was built on this spot will also be visible to everyone visiting the House of One.

Foundation ruins of the last church erected on the building site, near the TV tower. © Salam Plan

Antisemitism has risen 20% in Germany

This week the German Ministry of the Interior has published crime statistics related to political motivations. They include hate crimes and show that anti-Semitic crimes have amounted to almost 20%, with 1,800 registered cases. Islamophobia receded slightly, going from 1,075 crimes in 2017 to 910 in 2018. Christians in Germany have also been attacked for their beliefs, although in a much smaller proportion: 121 crimes registered in 2018 and 129 the previous year. These last two types of hate crimes are being measured since 2017.

Have they suffered any threat at House of One for their project? Nothing remarkable beyond some comments on social media, Caliskan says. His colleague Esther Hirsch acknowledges that the majority of hate messages are motivated, because the Muslim partner of the project is Forum Dialog, which belongs to the Hizmet movement, better known by the name of its leader, Fetthullah Gülen.

Since the attempted coup d’état against Erdogan in Turkey in 2016, his Government launched a persecution of all those Turkish citizens belonging to the movement or sympathizers of Gülen, as he considers them responsible for the attempt and has put them on the watch list of terrorists. These accusations -which in only a few cases have been brought to trial- meant the expulsion of thousands of judges, lawyers, professors and other professionals from their public positions. Turkey admits that it has kicked out 15,000 people, while Amnesty International assures there were 130,000 people, based on their requests to return to their job, according to Europa Press news agency.

House of One stays out of what it defines as a “political problem”. On the other hand, the project began long before that failed coup d’état. For the time being, it is the only bigger controversy that shadows them and they do not believe that their interreligious parish will generate rejection in the majority of the population. They consider that the more open they are to welcome everyone, the better they the acceptance will be and the better this place will work as a meeting space for people from different backgrounds.

Three spokespersons of the three religions working together to build House of one, before the building plot. © Salam Plan

Thanks to crowdfunding and subsidies

For now, they have collected almost 10 million euros only through private donors from all over the world – “really”, says Hirsch-, without accepting large donations from institutions or organizations. The latter ones have been rejected to maintain the neutrality of the project.

Another 10 million have been given by the Berlin region and 10 more have been obtained from the State. With another 10 million more, which they hope to get through more small donations, it will be enough to complete the project. And they take it for granted, that they will get the money they still need.

While they look forward to the laying of the foundation stone, with a countdown included on their website, they already promote their work for a peaceful coexistence from some nearby offices and another additional headquarters. Among other things, they receive student visits or organize common celebrations; the next one being a “common prayer for peace and religious freedom”, as reflected in article 4 of the German Constitution, now 70 years-old. It will be next Tuesday, 21st of May, at 5PM (for more details, click here). This time it will be in a church, but events vary and sometimes they happen in a library or in a mosque or anywhere they leave at their disposal.

House of One is not a project for Berlin, not even for the Germans. It is a project designed for people from all around the world. And surely, not only Berliners will be curious about it, but also the growing number of tourists visiting the German capital every year. In 2018 they broke their record, with 13.5 million visitors.

For the moment, those who want to have a look at Petriplatz will be able to observe the foundations of that church inherited from Berlin’s first days. But in a few years – they do not dare to commit themselves to a specific number – an ambitious interreligious parish will change the skyline of central Berlin.

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La entrada Three religions under the same roof: this is Berlin’s next revolution se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Saddened by the terror attacks in New Zealand, he thinks they could have been prevented with security measures against far-right extremists and terrorists instead of focusing only -or mainly- on radicals favouring Daesh [ISIS in its Arabic transcription]. At the same time, he warns about hate speech contributing to an atmosphere that encourages more violence from all sides.

Salam Plan has talked to this researcher of the international SETA think tank during his visit to Madrid where he presented the results of the report at Casa Árabe (Arab House), an institution which is part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain. He gives some hints to prevent Islamophobia from rising more and calls up on everybody to tackle the problem.

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How do you feel some days after the New Zealand attacks happened? Do you think the international community has reacted as expected, as it should have done?

I feel saddened by this very tragic event, of course because of the lives which have been lost, some of them children. But at the same time, I feel saddened that this could have been prevented, if the necessary precautions had been taken before.

Why do I say this? Because this has happened before, with Anders Breivik in Norway, and this should have been a wake-up call for everybody of how far the far-right terrorism advanced, not only in Europe, but internationally. We see the results of this in the United States, the attack against a synagogue carried out by a far-right terrorist. And there were other attacks also against Muslims in Canada[, UK]…

“The security apparatus in Europe has to take this issue seriously, tackle the far-right radicalisation. This way we will prevent not only future attacks by the far-right but also future attacks by Daesh, because they are feeding each other”

If the necessary precautions had been taken against the far-right rise and the far-right radicalization had been taken seriously, I think this could have been prevented. Because, consider: if you are a radical Muslim and you are searching on the internet or watching the videos of Daesh [Arabic name for ISIS], you will be in trouble quite easily: the intelligence services will detect you. But this is not the case with the far-right. They operate more freely, and I think that’s why these attacks are happening. That doesn’t mean that you can prevent everything, because there will be some lone wolves all the time.

I hope the future attacks will be prevented, because the atmosphere is quite ripe for these attacks. Unfortunately, this might happen anywhere in Europe nowadays. I think the security apparatus in Europe has to take this issue seriously, tackle the far-right radicalisation. This way we will prevent not only future attacks by the far-right but also future attacks by Daesh, because they are feeding each other. After this attack [in New Zealand], Daesh called for fresh attacks against the West or the Christians. This is a vicious circle and innocent people are getting killed.

>>> You may also read: Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS <<<

You talk about security measures, but what about the discourse to help prevent this? You just mentioned Daesh itself called for revenge, but Daesh itself attacks Muslims.

Yes, the majority of the victims of Daesh are Muslims. After these attacks [in New Zealand] there were some calls, especially in Turkey [, where I am based]: some people would say we should call this “Christian terrorism”.

I objected this, and many people objected this, because this doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity. You can justify violence with anything. There are some radical Buddhists, and some radical Orthodox… that doesn’t mean we blame all the Christians. That is why we need to be really careful about the rhetoric, because the rhetoric makes this kind of attacks possible.

People would think ‘Islamophobia is only hate speech, what’s the problem? I don’t like Muslims’. But it’s not just the rhetoric. Rhetoric, with time, turns into action and creates violence. The rhetoric has to change and there is a need for a political acknowledgement of the problem.

“The problems with Islamophobia and the far-right need to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, mainstream politicians are adopting the far-right ideas and their narratives”

First Islamophobia has to be acknowledged as a problem; many of the European countries are refusing the fact that there is a problem with Islamophobia. Even the European Union has now a coordinator on anti-Muslim hatred, but not anti-Muslim racism or Islamophobia.

Also, the problem with the far-right needs to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, mainstream politicians are adopting the far-right ideas and their narratives, and they are reluctant to challenge the far-right directly.

In your report you mention that Islamophobia does not only affect far-right politicians, but the whole range of them. How come?

Mainstream politicians are now under a lot of pressure in Europe. They cannot find a solution to the far-right; the only solution they see is what happened in Austria. The Christian democratic party ÖVP were a mainstream, reasonable party with a long tradition, but when the far-right started rising, they chose a young leader, [Sebastian] Kurz. He has muted his party more to the far-right. That was his solution to the problem, and he has become now a kind of the far-right leader. And that’s replicating itself in other European countries.

Now the three secret services in Austria are in the hands of the far-right [Government ally, Heinz- Christian] Strache.

For a certain amount of time the politicians were silent about the problem and at a certain point, they realized it’s unstoppable. (…) Islamophobia we find it also in the left party, in the Christian democrats… it has become a new form of racism that is acceptable to people.

“Islamophobia has become a new form of racism that is acceptable to people. We have far-right Islamophobia, but we also have Liberalist Islamophobia and Leftist Islamophobia”

May you give some examples?

Some people in the Green Party [in Germany] are calling for the headscarf ban. Or the former candidate of CDU, Friedrich Merz, said “We cannot allow Muslim children to get indoctrinated in Q’ran schools”.

Of course, we have far-right Islamophobia, but we also have Liberalist Islamophobia and Leftist Islamophobia.

Many feminists are in favour of banning the headscarf by saying ‘we are empowering the Muslim women’. Ok, there might be some Muslim women, youngsters, who may be forced by their families, but the overwhelming majority of them are choosing it by their own will. In France they are not allowed to study at the universities. Is this empowering women?

>>> You may read: Muslim European women claim their place in feminism<<<

In Spain now there is much of a debate going on whether the conservative Popular Party and liberal Ciudadanos should establish a cordon-sanitaire against far-right Vox in the next general election.

I think they should [establish a cordon sanitaire]. The cordon sanitaire [in Europe] was there, but it has disappeared. Look at the Austrian example. In the year 2000 [far-right leader] Jörg Haider became part of the [governing] coalition with his party. There was a big outcry in Europe, there was a diplomatic embargo against Austria.

” The ‘cordon sanitaire’ in Europe was there, but it has disappeared. Islamophobia is a threat to the democratic foundations of Europe”

Today, his party is again part of the coalition in a much stronger way. Nobody says a thing. The cordon sanitaire has disappeared. Why? Because of the Islamophobic narrative and discourse. If this is the problem of Muslims, I think everybody needs to rethink about it. If you let the far-right become normalized, it will just ruin the European Union. So, who is going to lose from this? Muslims? Not only. Islamophobia is a threat to the democratic foundations of Europe. We see the results. I hope New Zealand is a wake-up call for measures to be taken (…).

We need courageous leaders and civil society activists to tackle this problem. But many people think Islamophobia is a Muslims problem, it’s not our problem. Well, I don’t think so. If you allow this fire burn here, it will affect others (…).

Common people might have a prejudice against Islam and Muslims and common people in Turkey also have prejudices against Germans or Christians. This has to be tackled, of course, (but) that’s normal. The problem starts when this starts to become a policy and made into law, based on these notions of segregating people. We are talking more of a political problem.

>>> You may also read: Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim<<<

In your report you call for Islamophobia to be approached in the laws, just like the UN and OSCE ask. But from what you are telling me, it doesn’t seem this could become real any time soon.

No, I don’t think so. There is a strong opposition. Islamophobes say Islamophobia is a combat term developed by Islamists to reject any kind of criticism against Islam. Of course, we can critize Muslims and Islam, but the important thing is how we do this.

Why do you think it is so important that Islamophobia is put on paper, what would it help?

It would mean that the problem is acknowledged, it would help to record Islamophobic hate crime into a separate category. We would have statistics of what is going on the streets in terms of hate speech and attacks against Muslims and then we can talk about the problem. But if you don’t acknowledge the problem politically, then you are not willing to tackle the problem (…) and no actions are taken against this.

“Of course, we can critize Muslims and Islam. Common people might have a prejudice against Islam and in Turkey also against Christians. This has to be tackled, but the problem starts when this becomes a policy and turns into law”

According to a European survey promoted by the European Union and mentioned in your report, 12% of Muslims have reported discrimination to the authorities. Do you think that number is according to reality?

I think that’s only the tip of the iceberg. In Germany, we have 900 cases reported to the police. Many Muslims are not really reporting these cases to the police in Europe. First, many are not aware of the reporting mechanisms. Second, they might be socially isolated or very close to the people who are attacking them: the employer, teacher… Also, they are not really trusting the authorities due to fear that they will not be taken seriously, which happens.

In that survey it also came out 76% of Muslims feel attached to the country they live in. Well, I guess it’s because in many cases -may be most of them- it is because it is their own country, isn’t it? And there is always this idea of talking about Muslims as strangers or foreigners.

This is the main notion you hear: Muslims are living in ghettos, they’re not integrated, they’re not part of the society… well, look at the numbers. We are talking about 3^rd and 4^th generations living in Europe, they’re already European Muslims.

Which country would you say is the more Islamophobic European country?

It is really difficult to assess, we need to establish criteria. We’re just at the beginning of the process of uncovering the problem. I can tell the situation in France is quite bad for Muslims, in terms of political representation, which is quite low compared with the population. They’re not represented.

The rhetoric in Hungary and the Czech Republic is really radical against Muslims and there are almost no Muslims there, it’s like 0.001% of the population. But if you look at the rhetoric of the leaders of those countries it is as if next day the Muslims will take over Hungary or the Czech Republic.

You are presenting the third annual report on European Islamophobia and in June you will present the next one. Have you noticed a rise in these years?

What we’re seeing is that there are more violent attacks against Muslims. There is a case in Czech Republic, where a far-right person has tried to fake a terror attack against Czechs, he cut down trees on train lines twice and then he wrote fake letters in Arabic in order to fake a Daesh attack. He was arrested but was given a really minor sentence in the Court, because he had to take medicines for his high blood-pressure problem and that might affect his ability to think. That does also show the legal aspect of this issue.

“There are worrying signs that the far-right is increasing its activity to carry out attacks. The far-right is organized, there are training camps in Russia and Ukraine. There might be more terror attacks against Muslims in Europe”

There are worrying signs that the far-right is increasing its activity to carry out attacks. And that’s why I say, and I warn that there might be more (terror) attacks against Muslims in Europe and precautions must be taken.

So Muslims cannot feel safe in Europe?

The don’t already after what happened in New Zealand. It might happen everywhere.

It already happened in Europe as well but in a lower scale when it comes to the number of victims. In the UK there were two terror attacks against mosques…

Atmosphere is ripe, the infrastructure is there, far-right is organized, there are training camps in Russia and Ukraine… It’s just a matter of time.

That’s scary.

It is scary, yes.

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La entrada Expert warns about more terror attacks against Muslims in Europe if politicians don’t tackle Islamophobia se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

La entrada Hungarian party Fidesz suspended from the European People’s Party until further notice se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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Muslims in the United Kingdom have suffered two attacks on mosques in London in recent years. In both cases they were abuses or attempts of abuse at the exit of the sentence. The 48-year-old British terrorist Darren Osborne was sentenced to life imprisonment for his attack on June 19, 2017 outside the Finsbury Park mosque in London. He killed one person and left another 12 injured. He has to serve at least 43 years in jail.

Martin Stokes, 25, also tried to run over citizens with his car when they were outside another London mosque in Cricklewood on September 19 last year. He left three people injured. Barely a week ago, on March 6, he was sentenced to 5 years. Stokes admitted dangerous driving, the BBC reported. He had parked with some friends in a private area and they were bothering him, so they were asked to leave. He responded by ramming the car to the people who were there while he uttered Islamophobic and racist insults against them, witnesses said.

In Quebec (Canada), Alexander Bissonnette was also just recently sentenced for his attack on a mosque, where he shot six people dead in January 2017. The 29-year-old has been sentenced to 40 years without parole.

“The attack in New Zealand is the best example that all extremist ideologies are more similar than you might think,” said OIET director Carlos Igualada, through on his Twitter feed. At the same time, he pointed out that the terrorist groups like Daesh or Al Qaeda will soon use the attacks of this Friday in Christchurch in their own benefit and as an excuse to make propaganda in favor hitting back. They will not remind their followers that they usually kill Muslim people.

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La entrada Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS se publicó primero en Salam Plan.