Background

The Addressing Islamophobia in Newfoundland and Labrador Conference (September 22-23, 2018) is the culmination of an ongoing community engagement project to respond to Islamophobia, racisms and xenophobic discrimination. In the fall of 2017, Phase I of the project engaged over 40 community collaborators, representing over this list. The consultations yielded meaningful collaboration and determined a need to increase community awareness and community capacity to address Islamophobia (see our Yaffle summary).

The Conference: September 22-23, 2018

The conference has been planned and facilitated in conjunction with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and our local project collaborators, in order to co-create anti-Islamophobia advocacy, ally-ship and education, attentive to our provincial culture.

We anticipate that there will be over 100 members of non-profit community organizations, primarily service providers and community organizers, from across Newfoundland and Labrador participating in the conference. We aim to mobilize the capacity and strengths of our collaborators in a series of workshops, culminating in a discussion on a provincial strategy.

The goal of the project is to increase local knowledge about countering Islamophobia and xenophobic discrimination, and to foster the development of community-wide anti-Islamophobia strategies.

Definition of Islamophobia

We understand Islamophobia as a fear and/or hatred of Islam and Muslims (and those perceived as Muslim) that translates into everyday individual, ideological, systemic and intersectional forms of xenophobia and racism.

We advocate for an understanding of Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism and discrimination because Islamophobia cannot be understood and defined outside of racism and processes of racialization.

Lastly, although we highlight Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism and discrimination, these cannot be understood as operating separately from colonialism, anti-Semitism, religious and cultural discrimination, and other forms of intersectional oppression.

Conference Aims

Addressing Islamophobia aims to support NL service providers, educators and advocates to address Islamophobia as they support individuals who (may) experience anti-Muslim discrimination.

With Support From

This project is supported by MUN’s Office of Public Engagement, MUN’s Office of the Provost, MUN's Aboriginal Resource Office, the Anti-Racism Coalition of NL, NCCM, MANAL, MSA-MUN, MUNSU, CFS-NL, NL Human Rights Commission, RIAC, ANC, MUNFA, Social Justice Co-Op, FFAW-UNIFOR, ICNA and this list from across the province.

If you would like to receive updates about the project, or would like to receive more information, you may reach the Project Coordinator, Aneesh Sasikumar, at addressing.islamophobia@gmail.com.