OSCE/ODIHR trains imams and community leaders in combating hate crimes against Muslims

Imams and community leaders from across the OSCE region learned how to better prevent, monitor and report hate crimes against Muslims during a training session organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) that ended on 11 November 2013 in Warsaw.

The three-day workshop brought together 24 participants. It focused on strengthening their skills in recognizing and understanding anti-Muslim hate crimes and and their impact on victims, so that they can deliver their own training workshops to help imams and community activists.

“As indicated in ODIHR’s annual hate crime report, under-reporting and under-recording of hate crimes undermine the development and implementation of effective strategies to combat such crimes,” said Taskin Tankut Soykan, ODIHR’s Adviser on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims. “Community-based Islamic organizations and civil society can significantly help in reducing the data deficit.”

Mohammed Jamouchi, a trainer of imams at the non-governmental organization Muslim Executive of Belgium, underlined that imams and community leaders can play an important role in encouraging the reporting of anti-Muslim hate crimes, because they regularly meet with those vulnerable to such crimes.

Participants also looked at how the Internet could facilitate better reporting.

“Online tools that allow victims and witnesses to report anti-Muslim hate crimes can help non-governmental organizations better understand the extent of prejudice against Muslims in our societies,” said Shaimaa Abdulhady from the Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice NGO.