Human rights watchdog: Islamophobia on the rise in Holland, Muslims stigmatized, attacked

Islamophobia has increased dramatically in the Netherlands following recent terrorist attacks in Europe, a human rights watchdog warned Tuesday, with Muslims the subject of stereotyping, stigmatization and frequent racist violence.

In a harshly worded report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance said even Dutch politicians have resorted to making derogatory remarks about Muslims in recent years, and that racist discourse has remained "as a rule" unchallenged by mainstream political parties.

The report comes as the Netherlands is embroiled in a debate on what some Dutch politicians call an "Islamization" of the country, which has traditionally welcomed immigrants but put little pressure on them to embrace Western values.

Some in the Netherlands say the country's multiculturalism and tolerance have provided a breeding ground for Islamic radicalism. Fears of such radicalism crystallized after the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh for his movie "Submission," a fictional study of abused Muslim women with scenes of near-naked women with Quranic texts engraved on their flesh.

Right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders has generated widespread concern with plans to make an anti-Quran film portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

The report said that, in the Netherlands, "Islam has been repeatedly presented as a 'subculture' and Muslims have been presented as the carriers of backward values, generally incompatible with democracy and the values of Western societies."

It said Muslims also have been disproportionally targeted by state security policies, and that sweeping associations between Muslims and terrorism made in virtually all types of Dutch media _ newspapers, radio and television _ have aggravated Islamophobic views, which are increasingly becoming part of mainstream thinking.

"In the period after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and especially in the months following the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the Netherlands has witnessed a sharp rise in racist violence and other racist crimes, essentially targeted at its Muslim population," the report said.

The Dutch government said in response that anti-Islam sentiment in the Netherlands was part of a global shift in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Following the attacks in New York, Madrid and London, the tone of the global debate, in politics, the media and society as a whole, has become more bitter and more intense," the government said in a statement.

The government also said the report was wrong in saying that mainstream parties rarely take a stand against Wilders.

"In actual fact, these viewpoints are strongly, and repeatedly, condemned by the majority of other political parties and by members of the government," the statement said.

The Netherlands is home to approximately 1 million Muslims, around 6 percent of the country's 16 million population. Most are of Moroccan and Turkish origin.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, an independent monitoring body, assesses racially motivated violence, intolerance and xenophobia in 47 European countries. The commission is based in Strasbourg, France.

Along with concerns about Islamophobia, the commission's report on the Netherlands said anti-Semitic insults and Holocaust denial are growing more widespread.

"As an illustration, the word 'Jew' is reported to be increasingly used as an insult and different aspects of the Holocaust are reportedly questioned in everyday situations, such as in schools," the commission said.

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Associated Press Writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.