The Turkish-born German lawyer called for the closure of radical mosques and for European governments to address the thorny issue of foreign funding of Islamist extremism.
Seyran Ates, a Muslim feminist and human rights campaigner, said: “The European Union is not putting enough effort into combating rising far-left, far-right and religious extremism.
There needs to be more cooperation and information sharing between member states.
When asked to explain the recent wave of extremism that has swept across Europe, Mrs Ates, the founder of the liberal Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque in Berlin, said that the bloc had purposely ignored the worrying phenomenon.
She told Le Figaro: “We have closed our eyes [to mounting extremism] in the name of so-called tolerance.
In addition, some Europeans say that they no longer recognise their country and feel politically abandoned and voiceless.
“Far-right extremism, for example, has fed and continues to feed on this feeling of abandonment,” she added.
Mrs Ates added that Islamic extremism continued to thrive unopposed in the West thanks to the unwavering support of external forces determined to promote a rigid strain of Islam across Europe.
“Religious fundamentalists are making the most of the political and financial support of external forces based in Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or Iran, who are all bent on Islamisizing Europe.
We cannot deny their true intentions,” she said, before urging European governments to prevent the foreign funding of extremist groups.
“We must prevent the funding of mosques and other religious activities by radical overseas benefactors,” she said.
The Muslim feminist also said that not enough was being done to protect the victims of “everyday extremism”.
She said: “A man who bans his wife from working should be punished.
What’s more, if an employer notices that an employee has fallen prey to extremism, then he or she should have the right – and the freedom – to fire that person immediately.”