Mirna Fahmy – Diplomatic Inside
Immigration laws and mass deportations of Muslim immigrants in EU countries are a heated controversy among politicians and many natives on social media platforms.
Pro-Palestinian protests have seen violence highlighting radical Islamism, which infuriated many natives and politicians from right-wing parties in European (EU) countries who felt that their countries were getting occupied. The riots that erupted in France in summer 2023 because a French police officer killed a 17-year-old immigrant from Algeria who violated the driving rules and refused to obey the officer’s rules have questioned the issue as the riots destroyed many local shops, robbed them, and burned libraries. The majority of immigrants who rioted were Muslims, who thought that killing the young Muslim was regarded as racist on the French side.
In recent years, Europe has experienced a record influx of asylum seekers fleeing conflicts in Syria and other predominantly Muslim countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq. A record 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the 28 member states of the European Union, Norway, and Switzerland in 2015, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency. Conflicts and civil wars in each of these states have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Some have been displaced within their homelands; others have sought refuge in neighboring countries; and still others have made the often perilous journey to Europe to seek asylum.
Left-wing parties in the west have facilitated immigration and citizenship policies to help them win the elections. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau implied this in Canada, helping him win the elections so far.
In the last ten years, many EU countries have witnessed many dreadful attacks from Muslim immigrants. France is at the top of the list where several murder crimes have been reported because some people are giving views on Islam, like teacher Samuel and Charlie Hebdo incidents. France has been welcoming immigrants from Morocco and Algeria since the 1980s. Belgium, Germany, and many other countries have been dealing with many killings consequently.
Jihadist terrorism remains the greatest threat to the European Union and is still influenced by developments abroad in comparison to right- and left-wing terrorism, in reference to a Europol article. The Islamic State (IS), still active in Iraq and Syria, reaches out to supporters in Europe to incite them to perpetrate attacks. Global affiliates serve to uphold the group’s image of success, while hundreds of individuals are still held in detention camps in Syria, very few have returned to Europe during the past year. particularly those in Africa, which expanded in 2020. While hundreds of individuals are still held in detention camps in Syria, very few have returned to Europe during the past year.
In 2020, the number of completed attacks increased compared with 2019. Ten attacks killed 12 people and injured more than 47. A significant threat for several years, lone actors were behind all of the completed attacks. Some of the jihadist terrorists acting alone were in contact with terrorist groups. An example was the Vienna (Austria) attacker, who managed to transmit a video statement to IS.
The Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration, Mattias Tesfaye, has introduced a new classification for ethnic minorities in Denmark, singling out people from North Africa and the Middle East in statistics with reference to higher crime rates and lower employment rates. Denmark received 321 Palestinian refugees in 1992. By 2019, 64% had been convicted of a crime, and 34% of their children also received a conviction, according to data from the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration.
What has been troubling the Europeans are attacks by the locally born progeny of Muslim immigrants. Acts of homegrown terrorism have helped fuel the rise of right-wing parties and calls to check the flow of refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East. So far, The radical right parties are experiencing a surge in public support, according to the opinion polls related to the European elections. It is assumed that their win could remarkably impact the eurozone’s macro landscape in various fields.
A new study called “The Mistreatment of My People: Victimization by Proxy and Behavioral Intentions to Commit Violence Among Muslims in Denmark, examined victimization by proxy” and found European-born Muslims more likely than their immigrant parents to endorse radical ideology or violence.
Nine out of ten Jews living in the EU believe that anti-Semitism has increased in their country; 85% see it as a serious problem, and 38% are considering leaving the EU as they no longer feel safe here. This is also why the European Commission presented a strategy for combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life. Another study commissioned by the American Jewish Committee Berlin and carried out by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research concludes that anti-Semitic attitudes are much more prevalent among Muslims: 54% of Muslims believe that Jews are exploiting their victim status, 49% say that Jews have too much power in the economy, 47% consider Jews to be richer than the average population, and almost one in two feel that Jews have too much influence over the media and politics.
Pew research stated that by 2010, an estimated 44 million Muslims were living in Europe (6%), including an estimated 19 million in the EU (3.8%). They are projected to comprise 8%, or 58 million, by 2030. In the same year, there have been expectations by the European Commission that the EU population is stagnating and is set to decline.
Migrants from North Africa and the Middle East are causing overpopulation of urban areas, a rising issue in Western European countries despite a general decrease in population, the University Center for International Studies stated. Mass immigrations of young, unemployed youths are always arriving from Egypt in boats resting in Italy or Greece, seeking better life survival.
To curb immigration flows, the European Union announced a 7.4-billion-euro ($8.1 billion) funding package and an upgraded relationship with Egypt. This will pour funds into different cooperation areas, including renewable energy, trade, and security, while delivering grants, loans, and other funding over the next three years to support Egypt’s woeing economy and surge the employment rate.
Policies from EU ministries on immigration have been addressed after the series of Islamist radicalism’s attacks, which have recently increased derived from Israeli-Hamas’s war. Ministers from across the European Union said that member states must screen migrants and asylum seekers better and expel those deemed a security risk more quickly.
In the UK, immigration law policies and expulsion have become a viral issue in the parliament elections. Rishi Sunak’s government is intending to send some people who have tried to claim asylum in the UK to Rwanda to seek asylum there. Even holders of citizenship will have their files reviewed, and anyone found to have taken part in anti-Semitic demonstrations or participated in violence, chaos, and sabotage will have their citizenship withdrawn, and they will be expelled within a month of the procedures from Rwanda and from Rwanda to their country of origin.The European Commission president supports the party’s immigration policy.
In Germany, there were crowds spotted demanding the expulsion of the immigrants after an Afghani illegal immigrant stabbed a 29-year-old police officer in Mannheim, Germany, at an anti-Islam rally in Germany.
Activists in the UK who call themselves “white” or Brits and are advocating to exterminate immigrants from third-world countries have gathered in the UK streets on June 2, 2024, waving the UK, Israel, Wales, York, and other cities’ flags in the kingdom peacefully unlike the hostility from the other sides. Banners with “This is London, not Londonstan” were displayed highly. Their movements coincide with the new parliament elections that are going on in the next few days. The demonstrations were spearheaded by Tommy Robinson, a British anti-Islam campaigner, and one of the UK’s most prominent far-right activists who is eager to return the UK to its original religion, culture, and power.
“July 24th, 2024 will be a date earmarked in British history, when Patriots who love their nation converged on London to send a message to the establishment,” Robinson posted on his X account.
Many have been provoked with ire when they found immigrants shouting in London and other UK streets that the country should turn into a caliphate. Most of the mayors’ of UK cities are immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries, including London’s mayor, Sadik Khan. Conservative activists want a law to stop people from protesting in the streets, like in many Arab countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc. Arab people, especially those from the UAE, have ascertained their awareness of “freedom of speech,” which might be used as a weapon for chaos and insecurities.
They envy Saudi Arabia, which is developing and lifting up many strict traditions. A commotion was spilled all over X that Saudi Arabia is displaying model shows such as the latest bikini fashion show while the EU is going in the opposite direction.
US former president Donald Trump, who is getting sheer support from many Americans in the coming presidential elections regardless of the 30 file charges raised against him, is set as an example for barring entries from Muslim countries into the US. Trump labeled them as “terrorists” and “extremists.”
Poland, under the leadership of the right-wing conservative party, has not accepted any Muslim refugees at all. They only accept Ukrainian refugees temporarily, as they won’t incite chaos in their country.
LGBTQ rights are not ruminated on by many conservatives. All of them were spited by Biden, who announced Easter Day this year on March 31—a day for LGBTQ people—as a token of love and acceptance.
Conservatives, right-wing parties, and Republicans now regard the left-wing and their Democratic allies for radical Islamism on various social media platforms that will spoil the west if no strict actions are taken against them to usurp their leadership and power. Assumptions have been swishing around in many opinion articles and TV shows that the future will be in the hands of conservatives after the series of attacks by immigrants in the last decade.