TORONTO – Ontario students and teachers now have access to a suite of online resources aimed at combating Islamophobia in schools.
The Muslim Association of Canada, a national nonprofit organization, launched a website Thursday that features three courses, four workshops and six hours of educational videos to help address anti-Muslim biases that teachers and students may have.
Memona Hossain, a member of the association team that developed the site, said the resources on offer are important in helping schools tackle Islamophobia.
“This is definitely a necessary job,” said Hossain, who is also a doctoral student at the University of Toronto. “Our hope is that this type of work will report changes in the long term, not just the short term.”
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The federal government called an emergency summit on Islamophobia in July, just weeks after a Muslim family was run over in London, Ontario, in what police have called a selective and deliberate act. Four family members were killed and a nine-year-old boy was seriously injured.
In recent months, a series of hate-motivated attacks have targeted Muslim women wearing hijab in Alberta.. In September last year, a Muslim man was stabbed to death while volunteering at a Toronto mosque.
The Muslim Association of Canada received a $ 225,000 grant from the Ontario government in June that supported their work on the website, which can be found at islamawareness.ca.
“The result of this project far exceeds the original scope and offers very easy to access, practical and concise resources for educators, students, parents and anyone who is willing to tackle Islamophobia in education”, Sharaf Sharafeldin, executive director of the association. it said in a statement.
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Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said that many Muslim students continue to face discrimination in their schools and communities.
“That is why we are investing in and partnering with community leaders _ who are leading this effort_ to counter racism and better support Ontario’s Muslim students and their families,” he said in a statement.
Hossain, who worked on the online platform, said the association used feedback from some of Ontario’s largest school boards to improve the resources on offer.
“We have also received good feedback to hear that they are ready to use this in their classrooms, that they are sharing it with their colleagues,” he added.
The Peel District School Board, which was among those who provided information on the platform, said it was implementing an anti-Islamophobia strategy that calls for anti-Islamophobia training for all staff.
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“The PDSB unequivocally opposes all forms of discrimination and oppression, including Islamophobia,” said spokesman Malon Edwards. “We have taken these steps to ensure equitable and inclusive learning environments and experiences for our students and staff.”
Paul Gareau, Metis assistant professor in the College of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, was also asked to review the new platform and provide feedback based on his experience teaching indigenous perspectives. He said the site tries to dispel myths and misconceptions about Islam.
“That is always the uphill battle for us as indigenous studies people or indigenous people, how to educate people about the indigenous perspective so that we can break these cycles of anti-indigenous racism. The same can happen with Muslim communities in Canada, ”he said.
“Things like this, dismantling Islamophobia in school or Islam in education, I think it’s good to have them available.”
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca