Europe's Muslims are European. Stop outsourcing their plight to foreign leaders | Shada Islam

For EU leaders to seek solutions abroad to end prejudice against millions of their own citizens is insulting and meaningless

Terror attacks in France and Austria have put Europe's 25 million Muslims back in the spotlight. The unwanted attention is familiar. Discussing Muslims as a security risk invariably reaches fever pitch after an Islamist-inspired terrorist act. This time the attackers came from Chechnya, Tunisia and North Macedonia. But never mind: anxiety over the Muslim enemy within" goes deep.

Anxious debates on the place of Islam in Europe and claims that European Muslims are footsoldiers in an existential confrontation between Europe and Islam and represent an impossible-to-integrate other" have dogged Muslims across the continent for decades.