Excerpt:
Numerous public initiatives across Europe in recent weeks suggest that many people have had enough of racist violence and intolerance. Together, they contradict the image that most Europeans openly or tacitly support exclusion on the grounds of race and cultural difference, argues Michael Privot, the director of a Brussels-based anti-racism network.
For instance, thousands of Swedish women from various backgrounds recently posted pictures of themselves with headscarves to show solidarity with a female victim of Islamophobic violence in Stockholm. The initiative inspired similar actions in other places such as Brussels. Lately, acts of public resistance against intolerance have also occurred in Germany and the Czech Republic.
On August 21st in Berlin, neo-Nazi protests against an asylum centre were silenced by hundreds of people expressing their support for the centre and its residents. Moreover, anti-Roma neo-Nazi protesters in the Czech Republic on August 24th faced stiff opposition from both Roma and non-Roma groups.