ISESCO denounces European racist discrimination against refugees

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Thursday 17 Sep 2015 - 20:58 Makkah mean time-4-12-1436 (Image from AFP) Jeddah, (IINA) - The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) on Tuesday urged the Islamic nations to take a unified stance toward the countries that showed immoral and racist discrimination regarding the reception of Muslim refugees. This came after media reports displyed hundreds of refugees turned to churches and convert to Christianity in order to improve their chances of finding asylum in some European countries. Director General of ISESCO Abdulaziz Al-Twaijri has denounced this act and described it as an “Immoral religious discrimination practiced by states in order to refuse receiving Muslim refugees”. Al-Twaijri continued: "These innocent refugees are only looking for a safe place to live in with dignity. The majority of these refugees are Syrian people who are running from the civil war waged against them by a sectarian regime with the support of regional, international and terroristic militias." Al-Twaijri said in a statement: "Some European countries have refused to receive Muslim refugees, an act that reflects racism towards Muslims. It also reflects fear of refugees settling in their countries, which would constitute an increase in the numbers of Muslims in European countries, an outcome that has been feared by right-wing parties that have promoted Islamophobic ideas in the Western community”. He also criticized the states that expressed hostility against Islam, saying that "these countries did not respect the moral values ​​and the humanitarian principles, and they did preserve the human dignity which was guaranteed by international conventions in particular”, he said. “These countries might appear as secular states but they have a religious Christian background, and they did not even commit to the Christian teachings”. He stressed that the Syrian refugee crisis has escalated as a result of European countries refusing to take in Muslims for fanatical religious motives, motives that counteract the international law”. Another reason for such escalation is, he said, the amount of harassment and hardships that Muslims suffer from in order to obtain political asylum in the terms dictated within the UN Convention on Refugees of 1951. He called on Islamic and Arab organizations, whether governmental or civil, to take an active role in communicating and cooperating with international organizations, regional organizations and civil society organizations in European countries. He asked the organizations to play a role in spreading the culture of justice and peace, and to promote values of tolerance, coexistence and dialogue between cultures. AG/IINA