By KUNA
Brussels : European Muslims live in poverty compared to national averages in Europe, according to Jorge Sampaio, High Representative of the United Nations for the Alliance of Civilizations.
European Muslims “are much more affected by unemployed, tend to live in segregrated urban areas, are often socially excluded and face discrimination in everyday life,” he told a Brussels conference late on Monday.
Sampaio, former President of Portugal, estimates that there are about 15 million Muslims in Western Europe and about 7.5 million Muslims in Eastern and Central Europe.
“Muslims have become the largest non-Christian religious minority in Europe. If these trends continue Muslims will account for about 10 percent of the population of the EU by 2020,” he told a large audience of diplomats, scholars and journalists.
“Muslim minorities are causing growing anxiety in Europe,” said the U.N. official, pointing to the concerns of European leaders about the unwillingness of Muslim migrants to integrate themselves.
Later speaking to journalists and in reply to KUNAs question related with fears of Muslim communities in Europe that integration means giving up some of their religious values and beliefs, he replied, “when I speak about integration, I speak about citizenship, which means the right to vote, the right to participate in local decision-making and the right to have their own beliefs.” He stressed that the presence of Muslims in Europe is not a question of Islam and the West, but an acute problem of integration.
Sampaio said relgion is making inroads into European societies.
“People now talk about God all the time and fundamentalists of all kinds (Christians, including the Catholic Church, orthodox Judaism, sects and Muslims) are growing and have been very vocal in their request to express their faiths in the public sphere,” he said.
He said Europe required more and more respect for human rights, strengthened pluralism and better governance of cultural diversities.
Sampaio, who was appointed to his U.N. post in April 2007, said the First Alliance of Cvilisations Forum hosted by Spain last January came out with several initiatives.
One of them was the announcement of a 100 million dollar investment to launch Silatech, a global youth employment initiative, by Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser el-Missned of Qatar.
The Forum also announced an independent Alliance of Civlisations Media Fund to support film production that foster cross-cultural understanding.
The U.N. official is expected to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana later Tuesday.