RACIST VIOLENCE IN 15 EU MEMBER STATES - Cospe

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RACIST VIOLENCE IN 15 EU MEMBER STATES - A Comparative Overview of Findings from the RAXEN NFP Reports 2001-2004 20. Understanding the Research Findings 20.1. MANIFESTATIONS OF RACIST VIOLENCE If we look at the context for racist crime and violence in each Member State, as set out at the beginning of each country profile, we can begin to understand the complex and diverse manifestation of racist violence across Europe. 20.1.1. The Impact of Global Conflicts Global conflicts impact at the local level in Member States, and can resurface as racist violence against and between different sections of the population. The ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, are major global conflicts that have variously impacted on levels of racist harassment and violence at the local level in Europe. For example: • There is clear evidence from a number of Member States that attacks on Muslim communities increased in the months following September 11th. • Attacks also increased on minorities who were (wrongly) suspected of being Muslim. • There is also evidence from a number of Member States, such as France, Belgium, Netherlands, that attacks on Jewish people and Jewish property have flared up in response to conflicts in the Middle East. The attacks on Muslim communities in the aftermath of September 11th have been documented by a number of NGOs in Member States, and in some instances by official sources. But these reports provide little substantial evidence with respect to the perpetrators or alleged perpetrators of these acts. In comparison, there has been some notable speculation about the perpetrators and alleged perpetrators of antisemitic violence. Young Muslim males have been regularly identified, on the basis of both fact and speculation, as the major perpetrators of antisemitic violence. Jewish communities in a number of Member States have suffered from intimidation and attacks against person and property, as the EUMC report: “Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 – 2003” has shown. This has created a climate of fear and mistrust between Jewish and Muslim communities that has been recorded in another EUMC report on the “Perceptions of Antisemitism in the European Union”. At the same time, young Muslims are also being identified as potential criminals and terrorists as EU internal security is stepped up in response to the September 11th attacks, and ensuing global conflicts, as well as, more recently, the Madrid bombings in March 2004 and the murder of Theo van Gogh in November 2004. 180
RACIST VIOLENCE IN 15 EU MEMBER STATES - A Comparative Overview of Findings from the RAXEN NFP Reports 2001-2004 20.1.2. Insecurity and Hostility towards ‘Outsiders’ Negative political and media responses to particular groups can serve to enhance majority populations’ hostile attitudes towards minorities. Too often, minorities are linked to increased crime rates and the threat of terrorism on the basis of pure speculation rather than ‘fact’. As a consequence, people’s negative attitudes towards the presence of minorities in their country are based frequently on perceived threats. In turn, these negative perceptions are affected by a combination of factors that enhance people’s feelings of personal insecurity. As an illustration of this, findings from EUMC-commissioned research on majorities’ attitudes towards minorities, which is based on a statistical analysis of data taken from recent Eurobarometer and European Social Surveys, found the following: ‘The more people perceive decreases in their personal safety, or the more they distrust other people or political leaders … or the more they perceive ethnic minorities to pose a collective threat, the more they favour ethnic exclusionism.’ 108 What this indicates, among other things, is that people who display heightened fear of crime and distrust in others are more likely to display hostile attitudes towards ethnic minorities and immigrants. In other words, if people show hostility towards minorities – as thoughts, words or actions, including violent crime – the roots of this hostility can be partly understood by looking at individuals’ personal characteristics and insecurities. The above survey also found that people in rural areas, where immigrant and ethnic minority populations are typically small, showed more negative attitudes towards minorities than people in urban areas, where immigrant and ethnic minority populations tend to be large. What this seems to indicate is that people’s attitudes are often not grounded in actual experience. Here, intolerance or ‘fear’ of the unknown, in this case ‘outsiders’, plays an important part in forming people’s attitudes. Personal insecurities are shaped by both real and perceived threats to one’s wellbeing. Personal experience of unemployment and criminal victimisation, as concrete experiences, can serve to enhance an individual’s sense of insecurity. As concrete experiences they are, in turn, affected by perceived threats to one’s wellbeing, such as the threat of terrorism. This combination of real and perceived threats can then be directed at ‘outsiders’ who present an easy target to ‘blame’ for one’s misfortune or sense of insecurity. Many people experience both real and perceived problems and threats in their daily lives. However, it needs to be asked which individuals or groups transfer these negative experiences and perceptions into hostility against ‘outsiders’, and, in particular, into violent racism? 108 EUMC (2005) ‘Majorities’ Attitudes Towards Minorities’, Report IV; see: www.eumc.eu.int 181
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