German Group about "It's about choice"
Aktualisiert: 6. Feb. 2022
Interview of Temuulen Erdenebileg from Germany after the Training Course "It's about choice" in Berlin.
Can you give us your opinion about the project “It´s about choice“?
This project covers very important social topic. It’s very important to get know with this phenomena called Islamophobia. Most of us heard about it first time and project helped to open eyes on this problem. This project shows the difference between Islam and Islamism; which is important to understand. One of the most exciting parts was getting to know about Islamophobia level in countries of the participants. Sharing experiences helped to have wider look on the current situation in EU. This project let us think more and develop acceptance.
Do you think Islamophobia is a threat for our society?
Islamophobia is definitely a threat to our society. There are a lot of aspects to mention how it is a threat. First of all, someone’s fear of Islam can hurt the basic human rights of Muslims, in many ways. In the worst case in scenario Islamophobia can physically hurt Muslim people, but it can also leave an emotional damage. That can result in Muslim people not having the option to feel free in this society. On that note it can go further as to limit Muslim people from their full potential. It can make them scared to go places and do things that they want, thus denying them of reaching their full potential.
What can be done to combat Islamophobia on community, national or international level? The first and most important thing to do is to talk about it, if you don’t bring up topics, even if they are hard to talk about, nothing can change. That can go in a lot of different ways, for example, teaching about Islam in schools in a proper and professional way. Governments should not ignore the problem; they should take actions. For example, monitoring hate speech towards Islam and making sure there are certain concrescences towards people being Islamophobic. Also having more Islam representation in media, having Muslim characters in movies, books, etc. So that people understand that there is nothing to be afraid of, especially in countries, where there aren’t many Muslim people, and lots of Islamophobia comes from people simply not knowing any Muslims. Also every individual should speak up when they hear someone being Islamophobic and try to calmly explain to the person why that is not okay.