FEMYSO among other organizations had the privilege to attend the Counter-Islamophobia toolkit on France launch, in Brussels, Belgium. This event was organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and the European Network Against Racism (ENAR).
This toolkit is a review of dominant anti-Muslim narratives and compares counter-narratives in eight EU members states of France, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, and the UK. For now, France’s toolkit has been the first launched, the other countries’ kit will be very soon.
It identifies and postulates narratives, arguments, strategies and actions that will be able to directly counter Islamophobia and set guidelines on best practice aimed at countering this form of racism. It calls for policymakers, governments and educational institutions to play an active role to tackle the issue and strengthen legal procedures on this issue.
To give some insights of what was presented, here are the five recommendations argumented in the Key National Messages Report :
1) Dissociate Islam from terrorism in the political discourse
2) Encourage media to adopt a more nuanced approach to Islam-related issues
3) Increase social involvement of Muslim women
4) Reframe the public debate on integration
5) Acknowledge discrimination against Muslims
For more details about the project, please check: https://cik.leeds.ac.uk/