”Arguing against the motion 'Europe is failing its Muslims', Flemming Rose says that Muslims in Europe are not a coherent group, and that he doesn't want to essentialise them. Just like anyone else, Muslims are individuals with rights and obligations. Regretably though, many European Muslims are unable to exercise their rights - one recent survey showed that every third Muslim in Germany believed that their fellow Muslims didn't have the right to leave Islam. This has led to many living in fear because of apostasy, and risking social exclusion, stigmatisation or even worse. That there are councils for ex-Muslims, but not for ex-Christians or ex-Buddhists, is revealing. Rose believes that Islamophobia is a constructed model designed to protect Islam from criticism, rather than to protect individuals from discrimination. Human beings, rather than cultures or versions of history, have human rights.” Watch video

Tags: Flemming Rose, Islamophobia, human rights, Intelligence Squared