A conference labelled as “anti-Islamic” opened on Saturday in Paris. Described by participants as discussing "the Islamization of Europe," it has sparked protests from numerous organizations and French public figures, reports Al Jazeera. “It is a racist conference held under the banner of fighting extremism,” Sami Dabah, spokesman of the Coalition against Islamophobia, told OnIslam.net on Saturday. “Most of the participants in the conference do not hide their animosity towards Islam as a religion.” There was a heavy police presence outside the venue amid fears of clashes between the organizers and protestors. Delegations from 10 European countries, whose parliaments are increasingly dominated by the extremist right, attended the conference. One of the most prominent participants, as reported by the OnIslam website, was the Swiss right-wing party leader Oskar Freysinger who championed an initiative to ban the building of mosque minarets in Switzerland last year. According to Pierre Ksan, an organizer, Islam "assails" Europe and has "begun to invade our country and seeks to dominate us, using the population card in France and Europe." He told Al Jazeera that "we organized the conference to search for ways to resist Islam." In the conference's declaration, organizers state that the aim of the event is “to defend European values, especially secularism, in front of the Islamization trend on European lands.” The Muslim community in France, the largest in Europe, feel Islam is being scapegoated despite the confirmation of French officials that French Muslims are law abiding and only desire the right to religious freedom.
