Erdoğan slams rise in cultural racism in Europe
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed the rise in cultural racism against the Turks and Muslims in Europe, blaming incompetent European politicians for adding fuel to the flames in a bid to cover their failure in internal and external politics.
“The politicians who are unsuccessful in foreign policy and cornered in internal politics are trying to cover their incompetence by attacking Muslims and me. Islamophobia has turned to be one of the most important tools for Western politicians to hide their failure,” Erdoğan said at a meeting with women and youth branches of the International Union of Democrats, a Turkish nongovernmental organization composed of the Turks living abroad, mostly in Europe, on April 12.
The recent developments in Europe and how the European media has covered them are proving the rise in cultural racism in the continent where around six million Turks are living, Erdoğan said, stressing that an expanding and strengthening Turkish diaspora has already become a nightmare of some European politicians.
“The rising xenophobia and Islamophobia are the reflections of this. Introducing different models for Islam under different titles in some countries in Europe is representing this unhealthy perspective,” Erdoğan said, referring to France who is in process of legislating a new set of measures for the control of religious life.
Hate crimes against different ethnic groups in Europe doubled in the past years and attacks against the mosques and religious associations have increased, Erdoğan said, criticizing European democrats, intellectuals and scholars for being silent to this dangerous trend.
