Turkey seeks unity among Muslims amid rising Islamophobia

Muslims will only reach ultimate peace and harmony if they are able to establish unity and solidarity among themselves in the face of rising Islamophobia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a conference in the U.S. on Tuesday.  Speaking in a televised message broadcast at the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Islamic Circle of North America […]

Muslims will only reach ultimate peace and harmony if they are able to establish unity and solidarity among themselves in the face of rising Islamophobia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a conference in the U.S. on Tuesday. 

Speaking in a televised message broadcast at the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Convention in Chicago, one of the largest Islamic conventions held annually in North America, Erdoğan highlighted the importance of unity and positivity for Muslims. 

“We need to strengthen our solidarity in the face of anti-Muslim hatred, xenophobia and cultural racism, which have risen during the pandemic,” Erdoğan said, adding that Muslims need to unite and set aside cultural and ethnic differences.

 “All Muslims are brothers and sisters, regardless of their origin, skin color, nation, culture, sect,” Erdoğan said, adding that Islam had no room for exclusion, incitement or terror. 

Multiple Islamophobic attacks were recently witnessed in France, as two mosques were attacked in the country’s southeast and racist graffiti targeting Muslims were written on the street walls in the country’s west. 

According to local media, racist attacks targeted two mosques in the cities of La Mure and Domene on early Tuesday. 

Regional authorities in northern France also closed down a mosque in Beauvais because of an imam’s alleged “speeches against Christians, Jews and homosexuals.” 

The decision comes a month after the Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, announced that authorities were in process of closing down the mosque. The authorities allege that the imam pushed members towards radicalisation. 

According to local authorities, the mosque will remain closed for six months. (Daily Sabah/Anadolu Agency).