Engaging communities in tacking Islamophobia

Mend Scotland has been leading the way with MEND report, where we have interviewed several leading Muslim MSPs.  We have also been actively involved in MEND’s Islamophobia Response Unit fundraiser.

All of these have been livestreamed on Facebook where they have engaged the Muslim community and the wider community. 

We have one example of all livestreams being watched by a young non-Muslim man living in a very rural part of Scotland that has very minimal Muslim representation.The young boy in his first year at high school who is currently looking at Islam as part of his religious studies classes at school found the webinars interesting and informative to such an extent that he shared the links to the events with his teachers.

The young man’s family watched along with him, sparking many conversations around the dinner table. With his mum stating that the webinars were “hard and upsetting listening but really needed to highlight the issues and discrimination faced by Muslims across Scotland”.

We can see from this how important it is that we continue to highlight the issue of islamophobia across Scotland. That we continue to spark these difficult conversations within the Muslim and wider community. We see the importance of engaging younger generations to ensure that islamophobia is not allowed to take hold in future generations.