HIBAPRESS – Malaga – Fikri Ould Ali
The Spanish city of Malaga is preparing this week to host the seventh edition of the National Conference to Combat Islamophobia, an initiative led by the Moroccan Association for the Integration of Immigrants in partnership with the Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
The Faculty of Education Sciences is expected to transform on October 21st and 22nd into an open platform for scientific and societal discussion about the phenomenon of hatred against Muslims in Europe, with wide participation including experts from the fields of law, media, education, and sociology. The conference is organized after a long path of field and awareness-raising activities that covered more than twenty cities and villages in Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid, Murcia, and Valencia, targeting public administration employees and students alike.
The organizers seek, through this event, to develop a collective vision to confront Islamophobia and develop an alternative discourse based on the values of plurality, coexistence, and common citizenship. The conference program includes nine major axes that address the phenomenon from different angles, most notably: discrimination in educational institutions, representations of Islam in the Spanish media, and Islamophobia in the legal field, in addition to its psychological and social effects.
The meeting will also include direct testimonies from victims of religious hatred, the organization of workshops and roundtables that bring together researchers, civil society actors, and representatives of official institutions, with the possibility of remote participation via the "Zoom" platform. The official session is expected to be opened with speeches by Ahmed Khalifa, president of the Moroccan Association for the Integration of Immigrants, and representatives of the European Union, the United Nations, the autonomous government of Andalusia, and the Malaga City Council.
The session records a remarkable institutional and societal presence, as the number of registered participants exceeded 700, in addition to fifty-five public administrations, nineteen universities, seventy-six civil associations, and three national media outlets, a number that reflects the growing Spanish interest in the topic. According to a 2024 report by the Spanish Ministry of Interior, 1,955 hate incidents were recorded, including 804 incidents of a racist and xenophobic nature.
A recent study by the Moroccan Association for the Integration of Immigrants revealed that nearly half of Muslims in Spain have been subjected to attacks or discriminatory practices, but only 6% filed formal complaints. These figures put combating Islamophobia at the forefront of the challenges facing Spain today, and confirm the need for wider cooperation between institutions and civil society to confront hate speech and protect coexistence within the multicultural Spanish society.
