Though Islamophobia has been recognized as a specific set of discriminatory practices vis--vis Muslims in the European Union and Australia, present legislations have been slow to address, or address very restrictively, discrimination on the grounds of religion. Often Muslim victims have not been able to use existing, racially based, anti-discrimination laws as Islam is not recognized as an “ethno-religion”. Conversely, religious vilification laws which adopt a racial vilification approach encounter resistance and can create problems relative to free speech issues. This paper examines the evolution (or lack thereof) of anti-discrimination legislation in the European Union and Australia. Cycles of assertion and discrimination, linked to waves of Islamophobia and their resulting impact on anti-discrimination legislation, pave the way for an ethnicization of Muslim identities which sees “Muslims” functioning effectively as an ethno-religious category in the West.
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