On 5-6 July 2018 in Barcelona, Spain, the Intercultural Cities Programme conveyed an interdisciplinary working group to discuss successful initiatives to tackle Islamophobia through individual projects, and the work of local authorities. Strengths and challenges of each initiative were analysed by the participants, with the aim of setting up a joint comprehensive project. In its conclusions, the working group noted that such an initiative needs the involvement of the education sector, the media, civil society, and both public and private organizations in order to be effective. The project should consider the root causes of the issue, such as underlying beliefs and fears, as well as their persistence as a result of group thinking, such as hatred, discrimination and attacks against people of different ethnicity, culture, and religion.

Such a project will be drafted in the coming months based on the Intercultural cities programme’s approach to build cohesive and peaceful diverse societies, where everyone, regardless of culture, origin, religion and formal citizenship, has access to rights and the chance to realise her or his potential. By fostering inclusion and trust, the intercultural integration approach addresses the challenge of social isolation and marginalisation which are among the root causes of radicalism and social violence.

working group based its work on figures showing that a drastic increase of assaults against Muslims has been registered in the last two years. This is coupled with rising numbers of people revealing negative views regarding Muslim population in their countries, as well as migration from predominantly Muslim countries.