Professor Saied Reza Ameli and Arzu Merali attended the Organisation of Islamic Conference’s OMF department’s conference and workshops on Islamophobia in Istanbul, Turkey.  

A series of workshops brought together academics and practioners to deal with the key areas of Media and Law in tackling the unprecedented rise of Islamophobia in Western settings.  IHRC’s contribution though focussed on media during the workshop, while Professor Ameli also presented a paper on the Push-Pull effect of Islamophobia and Islamoromia.

A number of recommendations were made for follow-up including the setting up of Standing Committees to deal more systematically with media issues.  

The main conference saw presentations in addition to Professor Ameli from Professor John Esposito, Norman Finkelstein, Fatma Benli, Bulent Arinc, Professor Hatem Bazian and the OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu among many others.

Hopefully this conference will build upon previous Islamophobia conferences and projects such as the British Muslims’ Expectations of the Government project and the IHRC Hate Crime project.