By Salama A Salama He was walking briskly towards the conference room in a historic palace in Vienna and offering his views on the dilemma of Muslims living in Europe. "We're facing the threat of classification. If you're a Muslim, then you're considered a radical or a secular, a moderate or a fundamentalist. And depending on the rating you get, you'd be considered for residence or immigration. Your entire chance to work and integrate depends on your rating," the 40-year-old said in perfect Arabic. My interlocutor is a man who had been living in Austria and Hungary for over 20 years. Originally Syrian, he now holds Austrian nationality and represents a civil rights group defending foreigners. We were at a European Union-sponsored conference debating the role of the media in fighting racism and xenophobia. The problem facing foreigners -- especially those of Arab and Muslim origin -- is how rafts of new immigration laws will treat them. Austria is not the only country facing up to the issue of immigration. Most EU countries experience tensions, divisions and fears regarding Muslim minorities. Over the past few years, clashes and violence have become common in Europe. Disturbances in Parisian suburbs, attacks on coloured people and foreigners in Germany, the killing of a Dutch director of a movie believed to be hostile to Islam are all pieces of a larger jigsaw puzzle. Since the Danish cartoons, Europe has been enforcing strict security measures and debating stiff immigration and naturalisation laws. The need for such action was accentuated by bombings in both London and Madrid. On the day the conference was held, thousands of immigrants from Senegal, Cameroon and the Sub- Sahara landed, like migratory birds, on the Spanish-administered Canary Islands. Madrid immediately asked other European countries for help. I am recounting this to show that the problem is too complicated to be addressed by the media alone. Of course the media has a role to play, and it may even be to blame for provoking fears and widening the gap between Muslim communities and Europe. This was particularly true in the crisis of the cartoons, when European media maintained that freedom of expression takes precedence over other freedoms, including that of faith. Both Arab and European media pulled us towards the abyss. Europe is looking at media performance in Euro- Mediterranean countries, especially in Arab countries that are members of the Barcelona Agreement. Europe wants to bolster economic cooperation through a package including human rights, democratisation, education and freedom of expression. The media in south- Mediterranean countries is being asked to refrain from hate campaigns and racist slurs. All well and good, and yet European governments, one has to say, have failed to integrate immigrants into society. Extreme right and racist parties in Europe have fomented xenophobia for political purposes. Europe has right- wing parties that try to win voters by calling for the expulsion of immigrants. It is fine to ask the media, especially in the Arab world, to clean up its act. But this is only one part of the problem. Europe cannot overcome its fear of immigrants, Muslims or otherwise, by turning into a fortress. Europe cannot go on ignoring the poverty, backwardness, and organised pillage going on in Africa. Europe cannot go on ignoring the cultural diversity of the modern world. Europe cannot go on tolerating erroneous concepts about Islam while claiming to fight racism. There must be a thing or two Europe can learn from its anti-Semitic past.
