Doudou Diene, U.N. special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, condemned the rise of Islamophobia in Europe which he thinks is being exploited by right wing parties. He sees the "defamation" of Islam as an indirect cause of extremism because it directly causes Islamophobia, which bring repression of Muslim rights.

According to Diene, the "defamation" of Islam generates dangerous Islamophobia, which leads to the repression of Muslim rights and in turn drives Muslims to extremism.

Source: Reuters - 14/09/07 --> Read the article

* The view of the U.N. rapporteur is backed up by a previous article, published on Reuters that showed how plans to build mosques recently stirred protests all over Europe. Petitions in London and Switserland, court cases in Paris and Marseille, in Athens plans were put on hold and in Berlin the issue even gave rise to violent clashes.
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* Nonetheless, Yunus News has also already reported on the fact that there might be signs of better integration of Muslims into the European society, especially through building mosques.
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* The religious liberty arm of the World Evangelical Alliance has criticised the report of Doudou Diene because it would start from a bias viewpoint and showed partiality for example by discussing causes and aspects of Islamophobia while omitting information less favourable to the history and contemporary sociology of Islam.
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