On 7 October, I had the opportunity to have an online meeting with Ambassador İsmail Hakkı Musa, the new Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims. I congratulated him on his appointment. We agreed to continue and build on the excellent relations established with his predecessor, Ambassador Paçacı, and exchanged views on freedom of religion and belief, in particular anti-Muslim racism.

We both stressed the importance of civil society and engaging young people in combatting all forms of intolerance. To that end, we looked into possible avenues of cooperation, for example establishing best practices in combatting anti-Muslim racism. Ambassador Musa expressed his appreciation of the Council of Europe’s work and the independent expertise offered by ECRI.