"Every European country is a product of migration and population flows. Yes, Europe has been predominantly Christian, but countries have been able to integrate Muslims, and those who have not, have frankly been faulty of their social welfare policy," was how Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth put it during an interview with Voice of America. "There is a real need to stand up against that Islamophobia," he continued. "It is based on this false conception of European history that there is such a thing as ethnic purity."

DEFINE: Clarifies the concept of 'ethnic purity' as a false conception of European history, countering the notion that Europe has ever been ethnically homogeneous.

XREF: Connects to debates about European identity, Islamophobia, and the myth of ethnic purity that recur in migration policy discourse.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 731