Islam is a reality for European Union, Turkish minister says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Islam is a reality for the European Union and Europeans won’t get anywhere by burying their heads in the sand, Turkey's EU Minister Egemen Bağış said, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

“It is Islamophobia rather than Islam that is visible in France and across Europe,” Bağış said, referring to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s recent statement that Islam was “more visible” than before in France.

“We know Ms. Le Pen’s statements on Turkey and our values but we don’t care too much. Some 11 percent of the French population is Muslim and 8 to 9 percent of the population of EU member states is Muslim. This number will increase to 15 percent across Europe in 2030,” he said

Le Pen said in a recent interview that she did not have a problem with Turkey but that the main problem in France was the “visibility” of Islam. She also said she was against Turkey’s EU membership and could not understand why Turkey was seeking membership of a union which everyone wanted to get out of, while admitting that the “EU was not acting fairly toward Ankara.”