MOSAIC - The training kit for Euro-Mediterranean youth work

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many Mediterranean states are officially defined as Muslim in terms of their predominant
faith and their legal framework, each country has its own cultural and social
practices specific to its history and geographical features, as well as non-Muslim
communities. In addition, historically speaking and as a common phenomenon, particular
groups of people experience Antisemitism, Romaphobia and Islamophobia in
Europe and the Mediterranean as various forms of discrimination, hatred and prejudice.
36 Thus, it would not be wrong to claim that prejudice is still in action in European
and Mediterranean countries.
Some common forms of prejudice and discrimination across societies in the Euro-Mediterranean
space
Ageism is stereotyping and prejudice against individuals or groups because of their
age. 37 Its acts can be directed to members of various different age groups.
Antisemitism is hostility towards Jews as a religious or minority group, often accompanied
by social, economic and political discrimination, It is a combination of power,
prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance against Jewish people. 38
Disabilism is discriminatory, oppressive or abusive behaviour arising from the belief that
disabled people are inferior to others. 39
Homophobia is an example of discrimination based on sexual orientation. It is “an irrational
fear of and aversion to homosexuality and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people based on prejudice.” It manifests itself in the private and public
spheres in different forms, such as hate speech and incitement to discrimination, ridicule
and verbal, psychological and physical violence, persecution and murder, discrimination
in violation of the principle of equality, and unjustified and unreasonable limitations
of rights. 40
Islamophobia literally means a fear of or prejudice towards Islam, Muslims and matters
pertaining to them. It is a form of racism and religious discrimination.
Romaphobia (also called anti-Gypsyism) is a form of racism, an ideology of racial superiority
and a form of dehumanisation, which manifests itself most visibly through violence,
hate speech, exploitation and discrimination against Roma people. It is based, on
the one hand, on imagined fears, negative stereotypes and myths and, on the other, on
denial or erasure from the public conscience of a long history of discrimination. 41
Sexism is the actions or attitudes that favour one sex over the other and discriminate
against people based solely on their gender. It is linked to power, in that those with
power are typically treated with favour and those without power are typically discriminated
against. Sexism is also related to stereotypes, since the discriminatory actions or
attitudes are frequently based on false beliefs or over-generalisations about gender and
on seeing gender as relevant when it is not. 42
3.7 Prejudice and ethnocentrism in practice:
Orientalism and Occidentalism
In Euro-Mediterranean history, Orientalism has been a very dominant form of ethnocentrism.
It has produced many stereotypes, prejudices and cultural myths, the effects
and signs of which are still visible in the modern world.
Orientalism is a series of cultural assumptions that were put forward by European
scholars as a product of colonialism and its aftermath, particularly during and after
T-Kit No.11 - MOSAIC - The training kit for Euro-Mediterranean youth work