Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

Ausland
equality is a faraway goal in many of the Islamic countries; the goal of
modern, contemporary quality education based on science alone is very
difficult to achieve, too. However, the extent to which Turkey has been
a successful society is due to its approximation of achieving success with
regard to both gender equality and quality education.
Zwahlen Pedro: You mentioned two threats – xenophobia and Islamphobia
– that were not specifically mentioned by other speakers. I would
like you to elaborate on these subjects.
Loğoğlu Faruk: These tendencies have always been present in Europe,
though perhaps dormant. After the events of September 11, these tendencies
have come to the fore more forcefully. That is not accidental
because since the early 1960s Europe has been receiving large numbers of
immigrants, both legal and illegal immigrants, so that in many European
countries there are today millions of people of foreign origin.
Religion is a very fundamental part of European history and civilization.
On the other hand, most of the immigrants that have come to
Europe belong to other religions and other cultures. Therefore, fusing
and living together have not been easy, neither for the host countries nor
for the immigrants. This holds true for many aspects of daily life as well
as for broader philosophical issues. Psychologically speaking, Europe is
an enclave. But the arrival of so many foreigners – Switzerland, I think,
has the highest proportion of foreigners; one out of five persons in Switzerland
is of foreign origin – in combination with the cultural differences
and recent terrorist events, especially the attacks on September 11
and the attacks in such places as London and Madrid, have fired up the
aforementioned tendencies.
Islam-phobia is the result of the association of terrorist attacks with
fundamentalist Islam. Making this association is not necessarily wrong;
because the perpetrators – adherents of al-Qaeda – claim, what they are
doing is in the name of Islam. The problem runs, of course, deeper. No
religion, including Islam, espouses violence or terror. Unless we really
develop – across borders – a secular mindset, we cannot rid ourselves of
feelings such as xenophobia, Islam-phobia or, in the case of some Mus-
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