#IAM2020 with Preston City Council

This Islamophobia Awareness Month, Preston City Council will be getting involved with the campaign following conversations and activities across Preston with local councillors on the importance of showing support for IAM.

The MEND Preston volunteer team have been setting up conversations with councillors in Preston on IAM and how they can be involved this year. The discussion has been around the impact that showing support can have on the Muslim community and the need to vocalise that support. Local councils play an important role in tackling Islamophobia in their communities. Preston City Council, like others, have adopted the APPG’s definition for Islamophobia and this is a good first step in the fight against Islamophobia. However, it’s important to make sure that more work is being done beyond this. By engaging in Islamophobia Awareness Month, councils can work towards increasing their own awareness and also towards increasing the recognition of the work that the Muslim community they represent is completing, especially during this pandemic.

On the back of our conversations, the Council will be collaborating with MEND Preston to produce a webinar with a number of local organisations. They offered their local networks to support with the event and, during this webinar, we aim to bring the conversation around Islamophobia to the local community to talk about the reality of the situation here using stats. We’ll then move on to practical solutions for ensuring the Preston community is effectively working towards becoming an anti-Islamophobia environment that effectively tackles the societal issue.

Make sure that you’re involved with IAM and the conversation: http://islamophobia-awareness.org/