There’s a widespread belief that racism and discrimination against visible minorities whose appearance is ‘Muslim’ started and is related to terrorist attacks, in particular those of September 11, 2001 on the USA.

In fact, some of the reports on racism in Europe expose the problem as a long-standing, wide-ranging and deeply ingrained, and unrelated to terrorism, except as offering the extra opportunity that facilitates increasing the magnitude and intensity of racism toward Muslims.

For example such reports on racism show that black Africans, unassociated with Islam or Muslims, are treated and viewed in an extremely racist manner, despite the fact they have nothing to do with terrorism. Indeed that applies identically to all visible minorities. In other words, it has been there long before and irrespective of Muslim terrorism coming to America or Europe. Ancient, yet ongoing, racism against Jews and Gypsies in Europe also confirms that view.

Besides, terrorism is not new to Europe. Long before Muslims had any presence in Europe, white, "Christian"(1) terrorist violence of all sorts was taking place everywhere in Europe, from Northern Ireland and England, through France, Germany, Italy, and Spain right into Greece, among others. So it’s nothing new to Europe, which only a few decades ago smashed itself repeatedly to smithereens in war after war in which Muslims played no role whatsoever (except occasionally as victims, or targets of aggression).

Muslim terrorism, used by Europeans and other westerners as an excuse that justifies mistreating, abusing, or mistrusting Muslims, is a big sham. The only thing terrorism did was simply give racists an even greater opportunity and excuse to better practice their racism and hate. Earlier, their bigotry was more dispersed among all minorities in Europe, later, it became more focussed on the more easily justifiable and available prey, Muslims.

Evidence that terrorism was used as an excuse - not that Muslims have something intrinsically wrong or provocative about them that attracts racism - is that in earlier reports of European racism Muslims were hardly mentioned at all as a discreet entity suffering racism. They were simply grouped with the segment of the population generally referred to as ‘minorities”. Nothing attracted special attention to Muslims as a distinct group. But that doesn't mean that the reports on racism were not full of records of incidents of racism, discrimination, etc., against "minorities" collectively, in fact, they were shock full.

As terrorism offered haters and bigots the opportunity to feel justified in mistreating totally innocent human beings called Muslims, the target of hate increasingly became Islam and Muslims, and the racism reports reflected that state of affairs, gradually designating anti-Muslim racism separately as "Islamophobia", and addressing it as a separate category.

So in reality terrorism is only exploited as an excuse for intrinsically racist people to even more overtly and expressly practice their hate and prejudice against identifiable individuals who look and dress differently than them, and against their institutions (places of worship, schools, etc.).

The story of racism in Europe is a long and very sad one. In some cases barbaric as well, when we include the pogroms against Jews, and the ultimate evil consequence of hate and racism, The Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished precisely as a result of some westerners' hate for those who differ from them. Six million Jews died because they were Jews not Christians.

The above points explain why ‘dated’ reports on racism from Europe are important. They allow the reader to learn how matters stood before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Madrid, or London.

As an example of such a comparison of annual reports on racism in Europe, the annual report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) offers some insight into the progression of Islamophobia in Europe.

Any reviewer of the reports will notice that Muslims, Islam or Islamophobia are not mentioned at all by name in the 1997 report (the first ECRI report), but lumped under "racism" and "xenophobia", unlike the racism against the Roma (Gypsies) and anti-Semitism, for example, which are mentioned by name and treated independently.

Muslims are first, and only once, mentioned by name in the 1998 report, and Islamophobia is introduced tentatively between brackets. It wasn't until 2002 (report presented in 2003) that the term 'Islamophobia' was used in the body of the report to describe racism against Muslims and Islam in a section of its own in the report.

In terms of the potential for racism, that is to say in racism-relative terms, there were large enough concentrations of Muslims in Europe in 1997, not much different than in 2002. They had already been there in large enough numbers since the early 1980's, and in only slightly smaller numbers from well before that time in a number of European nations.

So Muslims were obviously not doing anything in particular that attracted racism against them, anymore than any other minority. Obviously, then, the instant an opportunity presents itself to racists to exercise their hate more openly and forcefully on a particular group they do just that. It is clear that 9/11 was only a trigger for an increase in already existing gratuitous hate against Muslims.

The murder of a filmmaker in The Netherlands likewise offered the same opportunity to well-established, long-existing Dutch racists. In that case, it exposed much more poignantly their latent intrinsic hate. They had felt let down and disappointed that the murder of a prominent Dutch politician - Pim Fortuyn - two years earlier was committed by a fellow white "Christian" Dutchman when they had hoped it was a Muslim, and had prepared for revenge attacks!

That case offers some insight into one of the most revealing racism situations embodying the point of this discussion which is that to hard-core racists the actual nature of the crime itself doesn't really matter at all, it is who committed it that does . Thus years and years of Irish terrorism in mainland England never resulted in racism against the “white” Irish, but long before the 2005 London bombings, hate against a visible minority, Muslims, was being practiced liberally in the UK.

If a white person had committed the crime against the Dutch filmmaker, it would have been just another crime by just another criminal, awful as it would have been regarded. But if a Muslim committed the crime it's because Muslims are all terrorists and indeed the whole of Islam is a violent religion, not because a criminal, who in this case happens to be one Muslim out of a million Dutch Muslims, committed a crime.

This warped attitude, by the way, is shared well beyond racists, and well into governmental and other venues of officialdom in the west. Not because of racism, not at all, but because it's both intuitive human nature to react in that manner, and also the result of ignorance.

European racism in other words (and as we additionally argue and provide contemporary evidence for in other HaSM articles) has nothing to do with Muslims per se eliciting prejudice against them by qualities intrinsic to them, but rather arises from the very character of the European people in question. Naturally, a brief look at the history of the Jews in Europe, west to east, would instantly confirm that point without further question.

However, it is crucial to note that we are speaking here of the “racists” in Europe, the actual individuals, groups, or political parties (the so-called "extreme right") that engage in hate and racism, not of Europeans or "Christians" collectively.

Even back when persecuting Jews was in vogue, and later exterminating them was ignored by some, and enthusiastically supported by others, there were always those who didn't take part in, approve of, or condone that great evil. And in some cases - relatively small as their number is - some condemned it loudly or played a part in saving Jews.

So despite the above analysis it is very important to note that generalizations in place, time, or person, have no legs whatsoever,anywhere, anytime, in any people, any race, any faith, or any nationality.