Project description and goals: 

There is growing Islamophobia in the Visegrad countries, as well as other parts of the European Union. Given the governments' instrumentalization of Muslim refugees as sources of insecurity and direct threats to national security, we argue that a project addressing growing intolerance towards Islam in the Visegrad countries is timely.

The main goal of this project is to raise awareness among young citizens in the Visegrad countries about the historical role played by Islam in some European countries, while emphasizing a nuanced understanding of Islam as a multi-vocal religion and a lived-in reality, which is not intimately tied to terrorism or warfare.

Our objectives are:

1)      To deconstruct the inaccurate and politically instrumentalized view according to which Islam is construed as enmity and danger

2)      To offer young Czech, Hungarian and Slovak people a reading of history according to which Islam is not alien to European culture and that a fruitful dialogue between Muslims and Christians could be (and, in fact, it is) the norm and not the exception

3)      To focus on educating young Central European citizens on the main tenets of Islam, by exposing them to stories of successful inter-religious cohabitation and dialogue from Bosnia Herzegovina. The mixed religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

4)      To offer young Central European citizens the possibility to explore their own religious context and identify examples of multi-religious communities in which Muslim and Christians live and work together by inviting them to participate in a photography competition focused on capturing instances of inter-faith dialogue.