ISTANBUL - The discourse of battling "political Islam," used widely by European governments in recent years, has left the Muslim communities of these countries in the crosshairs, writes Gulcin Kazan Doger in www.aa.com.

Muslims have suffered limits to their fundamental rights, introduced under the guise of measures against "political Islam" in Austria, "legalistic Islamism" in Germany, and "Islamic separatism" in France. Farid Hafez, a political scientist currently at Georgetown University in the US, told Anadolu about how Muslims are marginalized and criminalized with this new language frequently used in Austria, Germany, and France.

Hafez argued that the concept of opposing political Islam was based principally on disintegrating independently organized Muslim civil society that is not reliant on the state. The notions of "political Islamism," "legalistic Islamism," and "Islamic separatism" are all variations on "one and the same concept," he argued. To circumvent allegations of violating religious freedom, authorities in these three European countries avoid speaking out directly "against Islam," but rather against "political Islam," Hafez underlined.

This way, they can do such things as introduce discriminatory legislation and crack down on certain parts of the Muslim community, while saying they are not attacking Islam and "really only want to go against the bad (Muslims)," he explained, adding that they also claimed to seek to "protect the vast majority of Muslims."