Let’s Empower, Participate and Teach each other to Hype Empathy: Challenging discourse about Islam and Muslims in Poland

ended

The project directly relates to the EU’s priorities for 2019–2024. High levels of Islamophobia and xenophobia in Poland are hindering the efforts to promote EU norms, while also negatively affecting Muslim population and whole society. Our project provides a complex & intersectional framework to tackle Islamophobia in Poland. The project aims to: -identify, analyse, and challenge negative stereotypes against Muslims in different spheres, -raise awareness and provide educational resources to relevant stakeholders, -monitor Islamophobia. The project focuses on four thematic areas: -School setting – 2 studies on Islam in school curricula + survey on teacher perception of Muslims; educational materials and activities: workshops for teachers (20), language lounges (20), international summer schools (2). -Municipality setting – study on perception of Islam and Muslims among uniformed services, exploring Islamic Poland, workshops for municipality employees (12), social services (7), uniformed services (4) + workshops for Muslims on active citizenship (12) and safety in the city (4). -Media & Law – study on legal cases on prosecution and court proceedings on anti-Muslim crimes; documenting Islamophobia in Poland media discourse. -General public – online, social media & podcast campaign based on the human journalism approach + a series of culinary events (6) for direct involvement. Channels used have impact of 150K users monthly. The Consortium is built by 2 HEIs – SGH Warsaw School of Economics and Maria Grzegorzewska University & 4 NGOs – Institute of Discourse and Dialogue, Security and International Development Institute, Women on the Road Foundation, and Union of Polish Metropolises. To our knowledge, this project would be the first one that tackles Islamophobia in Poland in such a comprehensive and complex manner. Thanks to the ambitious scope with a strong dissemination component, the project can raise awareness on the need to counteract Islamophobia in Poland.