Bulgarian Group about "It's about choice"
Interview of Yani Enchev from Bulgaria after the Training Course "It's about choice" in Berlin.
Can you give us your opinion about the project “It´s about choice“?
The project “It's about choice“ was not only a really fun experience but during the project we managed to learn something new as well. I am really grateful for the insights about islamophobia in other countries. We even managed to cover other questions like racisim to roma comunity or racism in general. I really liked the form of studying involving teamwork, which also learned us to present something in front of an audienice, which was really refreshing after a year being stuck in home :-). On the other hand, something that could have been worked on was the whole expertise of the project, our lector was really good in sense that he knew a lot about islam. Overall, the project was great, one the best I have ever been on.
Do you think Islamophobia is a threat for our society?
Let me start by saying that any phobia or predujice against other people is definitely dangerous. But islamophobia is in my opinion especially alarming and there are multiple reasons for that. One of which being that we- the majority usually undertake steps against innocent muslims that are on the level of acts of a small group of vilonet muslims. Other example is, that for example in my country, we are pretty open about being islamophobic, which is sending the message, that is okay to be islamophobic. For instance, we change legislative in order to block islam from establishing the church of islam in our country and therefore being unable to build and holy stalls (musks) here.
What can be done to combat Islamophobia on community, national or international level? Community level: Educate. Engage youth in meaningful activities which would allow them to think critically, meet counterparts with the opposite reasoning and different religious background, listen to them and express their own thoughts, broaden their knowledge on the topic. Advocate for chance by setting an example in a community.
National level: Inform the public by providing them with factual and balanced information.
International level: Voting for thoughtful, experienced and considerate leaders.