University of Manchester- Exhibition and Causes + Cures

On Monday 10th June, MEND Manchester delivered the first of two Islamophobia sessions to Student Ambassadors and Diversity Champions at the University of Manchester, as part of the Students’ Union’s Speak Up! Stand Up! campaign.

MEND were tasked with delivering on the topic of Islamophobia to raise awareness on the topic and to empower individuals to become active bystanders when they identified problematic behaviour. Our Exhibition and it’s quiz counterpart gave the attendees an opportunity to learn about the history of Muslims in the UK, the contributions of the Muslim community and the realities of how Islamophobia presents itself.

Through our Causes + Cures presentation, we were able to effectively communicate how the escalation of Islamophobia begins with perceptions, attitudes and beliefs and can quickly progress through microaggressions to verbal and physical abuse. Using the presentation, we could relate the experiences and manifestations of Islamophobia to the campaign’s Pyramid of Hate (http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=40569).

The attendees engaged in comprehensive discussions about the root causes of hate and how we can make the move from passive to active bystanders. We look forward to delivering our next session soon!