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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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27th January 2004

Press Release: Never Again? Maybe just once more?
We should learn the lessons from what preceded the Holocaust

On the UK’s Holocaust day, IHRC wishes to highlight the processes that led to the genocide of so many millions of innocent men, women and children in modern Europe.

Recent UK polls show almost a fifth of the British population would be unhappy with a Jewish Prime Minister and some 40% would not want to live next door to an Asian or Black family. This is indicative of an alarming level of ingrained prejudice that has even more significance set in the context of ongoing international events.

The recent attempts by various European countries to ban hijab (Muslim women’s dress code) from state institutions and documentation has particularly sinister undertones. It sets out Muslim women and Muslims per se as something alien to European society that need to be legislated against. This is exactly the type of demonisation and legislation enacted by fascist regimes to target the Jews, gypsies and other undesirable ethnicities in Europe in the 1930s.

Increasingly draconian legislation Europe-wide that targets Muslims as a terrorist threat to wider society has also led to the incarceration of Muslims in top security prisons indefinitely and without charge. This was how the notorious Nazi concentration camps began their existence.

IHRC Chairman Massoud Shadjareh said today:

“How is it that we still do not recognise the end result of the process of demonisation that we are on? If such a significant proportion of the British population cannot stand the thought of a Jewish prime minister, what must be the thinking regarding Muslims who have been the targets of media demonisation and severe curtailments of civil liberties?

“Let us pray it does not take another genocide in Europe to make society recognise the magnitude of its current policies and prejudices.”

For more information, please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958 522 196, or info@ihrc.org.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org