Bringing Muslim Minorities within the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination--Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Abstract

In 2009, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) explicitly recognised the intersection between racial and religious discrimination.1 In this article, I consider the possibility and implications of the application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) to Muslim communities of immigrant origin in Western Europe, in the wake of increasing intolerance and discrimination. I argue that there is a clear intersection between the ethnic and religious identities of Muslim immigrant communities in Western Europe. Further, when discrimination targets the religious identity of these groups, this constitutes indirect discrimination against ethnic minorities. Therefore, it is possible for CERD, in contrast to its current practice, to employ the concept of indirect discrimination in order to find a violation of ICERD in instances of religious discrimination against Muslims, as this disproportionately affects immigrant communities.