I Report Roundtable: Working definition of anti-Muslim racism

When the conversation turns to anti-Muslim racism, there is often a good amount of discord – given the differing definitions and understanding of what the term means to people from academia civil society or the political field. Against this backdrop, we jointly pursued the question of how to define the term anti-Muslim racism with representatives from politics, academia and civil society at our Roundtable on 19 June 2020.

Presentation of a working definition of anti-Muslim racism

Aim of the event: to find a definition that can be used as a uniform basis for discussion as a means of reinforcing recognition of the issue, raising public awareness, and heightening the protection of victims of anti-Muslim racism affected by discrimination and hostility.

To this end, Dr. Farid Hafez presented the preliminary findings of his “Anti-Muslim Racism: A Working Definition” research report, which was compiled in cooperation with the CLAIM Project I Report and Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

Roundtable with representatives from politics, science and civil society

Following Prof. Hafez’s presentation, the working definition was discussed by, among others, Helge Lindh (Member of the SPD Parliamentary Group), Christine Buchholz (Member of Die Linke Parliamentary Group), Yasemin Shooman (DeZIM-Institut), Eva Andrades (Antidiskriminierungsverband Deutschland [advd]), Serap Güler (Undersecretary for Integration), Derviş Hızarcı (Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for Berlin Schools), Yusuf Sari (FAIR International), and Nathalie Schlenzka (Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency). The outcomes of this discussion were immediately incorporated into the adaptation of the “Anti-Muslim Racism” working definition.

Based on the working definition, I Report is now pursuing the goal of bringing greater visibility to anti-Muslim criminal offences and incidents of discrimination . At the same time, the working definition will serve to underline our work on creating a standardized database as well as a uniform tool for recording anti-Muslim assaults.

We will be making the research report available on our website as soon as possible.