ISLAMOPHOBIA REPORT

ISLAMOPHOBIA IN Sweden
to become educators. Her study refers to earlier studies 55 in which it was pointed
out that students from these groups experience exclusion and discrimination. The
students believe these experiences are related to their ethnic background and to stereotypical
beliefs held of ‘them’ in society and in their programs. Bayati’s own study
found similar concerns in teacher education and writes:
…racialized segregation in society is reconstructed in education, for example
in group work or work placements 56
Despite this, Bayati also highlights that her study:
…reveals resistance–agents from different ethnic backgrounds who acknowledge
the existence of institutional, inequality creating and discriminatory discourses,
and fight them. 57
Bayati’s solution is that teacher education must “actively counteract the monocultural
and Eurocentric knowledge construction that dominates the system, so as
to live up to the democracy and equality-promoting claims of its policy documents.”
EXPO’s representative, whose overall suggestions are similar to Bayati’s, stated that
teachers need to increase their competence and knowledge about racism and Islamophobia,
and that more inclusion is needed in education. On the HR-days in Gothenburg
58 however, Bayati stated that there is a lack of inclusion in the pedagogic
departments under her studies, and that there is no mandatory literature or course
in the teacher program at Swedish universities that addresses issues of representation
and inclusion. 59 Ibn Rushd’s representative stated that the above concerns have been
raised, but that these matters are still being explained in the same way. It is unclear
to whom these concerns were raised or in what way.
Swedish Media and Islam/Muslims
Given the present levels of globalisation, Sweden, like other countries, is not exempt
from the impact of foreign events. The civil wars in Syria and Iraq, the on-going ref-
55. Fazlhashemi, Mohammad. 2002. Möten, Myter och Verkligheter: Studenter med Annan Etnisk Bakgrund Berättar
om Möten i den Svenska Universitetsmiljön. 2002:1. Umeå: Universitetspedagogiskt Centrum, Umeå Universitet.
Fridlund, MariAnne. 2010. Se Människan i Var och en av Oss. En Studie om Likabehandling av Studenter med Annan
Etnisk Bakgrund i Högskolan. Ma diss., Göteborgs Universitet.
Åberg-Bengtsson, Lisbeth. 2005. Hur Roligt är det att Vara Student? En Undersökning av
Soltani, Sofie. 2008. Mötet med det Nya: En Studie om Utländska Lärarstudenter med Tidigare Lärarutbildning från
ett annat Land och Deras Upplevelser vid en Svensk Universitet (Bachelorthesis). Göteborg: Institutionen för Pedagogik
och, Didaktik, Göteborgs Universitet.
56. Bayati, Zahra. 2014. “‘Den Andre’ i Lärarutbildningen: En Studie om den Rasifierade Svenska Studentens
Villkor i globaliseringens tid.” PhD diss., Göteborgs Cabero Universitet.
57. Ibid.
58. Kittelmann Flensner, Karin. 2015. “Religious education in contemporary pluralistic sweden.” PhD diss., Gotgenburg:
Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, University of Gothenburg.
59. “Ett Mörkt Årtusende eller en Gyllene Tidsålder”- Panel discussion during the annual Human Rights Days conference,
Gothenburg, November 10, 2015.
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