University of Brighton UCU

On Thursday 19th November, as part of Islamophobia Awareness Month, MEND were invited to speak to the UCU (University and College Union) at University of Brighton to discuss Islamophobia alongside Umit Yildiz.

Umit spoke to attendees about PREVENT and issues around the programme, drawing on his research and academic expertise. MEND then spent 20 minutes discussing Islamophobia in the UK. We spoke about the role of MEND in tackling Islamophobia and how we work to empower and educate the Muslim community to help support them in becoming more engaged with politics and media. During Islamophobia Awareness Month, we work with a number of organisations and institutions to highlight the extent of Islamophobia in the UK and also to celebrate the contributions of Muslims to the UK.

We then spoke about the importance of actively looking to educate yourself, the importance of engaging with stakeholders and the importance of working in collaboration with grassroots orgs to tackle Islamophobia. 

We then took questions from the attendees which included concerns around how personal data can be saved by institutions and then used further down the line. We also spoke about unconscious bias and how that can affect opportunities given to minority groups, specifically Muslims. We enjoyed speaking with the team and hearing from Umit about PREVENT as well. 

Many thanks to Christian Hogsbjerg for inviting us to speak and we hope to continue the conversation throughout the year.

The first step to tackling Islamophobia is awareness so be sure to get in touch to find out how you can book in a session with us soon!