ISLAMOPHOBIA REPORT

EUROPEAN ISLAMOPHOBIA REPORT 2015
ian Islamic community 120 on the pretext of ensuring the country’s security. Despite
these attempts, the above-mentioned motions were often blocked by other political
coalitions inside the municipal or regional councils because they were considered in
breach of the Italian Constitution.
OBSERVED GOVERNMENTAL AND
NON-GOVERNMENTAL INITIATIVES
UNDERTAKEN TO COUNTER ISLAMOPHOBIA
Throughout 2015, several initiatives were undertaken by national institutions, professional
bodies, civil society and the Muslim community itself. However, the majority
of them have not specifically focused on Islamophobia as such, but rather adopted
a broader approach.
At the governmental level, an important initiative was undertaken by the UNAR
Office; the office launched the Spegni le discriminazioni, accendi i diritti (Stop discriminations,
turn on rights) campaign in February 2015. The purpose of this campaign
was to raise awareness about the need to fight discrimination. To this end,
UNAR set up a contact centre, the task of which is to receive complaints through a
national helpline and a website for victims and witnesses of discrimination. 121 Also,
in March 2015, on the occasion of the week against racism, UNAR launched the
campaign Accendi la mente, spegni i pregiudizi 122 (Turn on your mind, turn off the
prejudices), as a follow-up action to the previous initiative against discrimination.
Other relevant initiatives which are targeted at countering, among other phenomena,
Islamophobia, will be undertaken by UNAR in 2016.
Furthermore, in the field of media and cyber-space, the Carta di Roma association
promoted the #NoHateSpeech initiative, thereby asking all publishers and
journalists to ban hateful comments that target, among other, members of religious
minorities. 123 The “No hate speech campaign” initiated by the Council of Europe has
also focused on the need for countering on-line hate speech in all its forms.
As for specific initiatives that are aimed at countering Islamophobia, it is worth
mentioning the MAI+ (never again) initiative, the goal of which is to monitor Islam-
120. See the Northern League’s initiative which was aimed at taking a census of Islamic associations in the Lombardy
region, http://artventuno.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mozione-Lega-Nord-Islam.pdf; see also the proposal of
the Northern League asking to organise a public consultation on the opportunity to build a mosque in Castelfranco,
in the Emilia-Romagna Region. For further details, see “Castelfranco Emilia (MO), Lega Nord: “Moschea
– Centro culturale religioso islamico: il sindaco consult ii cittadini”, 23 October 2015, https://infosannio.wordpress.
com/2015/10/23/castelfranco-emilia-mo-lega-nord-moschea-centro-culturale-religioso-islamico-il-sindaco-consulti-i-cittadini/.
121. For further details, see the UNAR’s website, http://www.unar.it/unar/portal/?p=4700.
122. For further details, see the UNAR’s website, http://www.unar.it/unar/portal/?page_id=1976.
123. “#NoHateSpeech, appello contro tutti gli istigatori d’odio”, Il Fatto Quotidiano, 7 September 2015, http://
issuu.com/ufficionazionaleantidiscriminazioni/docs/unar_-_rassegna_stampa_8_settembre_/1
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