Fast for Unity

What is Fast For Unity? 

This is an open invitation to people of all faiths and backgrounds to observe fasting during Ramadan. Fast for a day, two, ten, or all 30 during the holy Islamic month in solidarity with Muslims against rising Islamophobia (anti-Muslim racism) sentiments worldwide. Our mission is to foster religious tolerance and understanding through this initiative.

Why should you Fast For Unity?

Fast to take a stand against these statistics:

  • According to the American Muslim Poll 2020, 60 to 62% of Muslims face discrimination in the United States of America.
  • 2020 Annual Report of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed that 61% of Muslim students have experienced religious-based bullying. 33% of Muslim students have altered their appearance, behavior, or names to hide the fact that they are Muslims.
  • A EU Minorities and Discrimination Survey found that on average one in three Muslim respondents faced discrimination and prejudice in 2017 and 27 % experienced a racist crime.
  • Recent research by the European Network Against Racism shows that Islamophobia can especially impact women. It may impact women in the job market for example.
  • In 2019, a widespread mistrust towards Muslims across Europe was found when the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion Monitor conducted research. Countries such as Germany and Switzerland reported that Islam was perceived as a threat by every second respondent. Meanwhile, in the UK, two in five share this perception.  Islam is often stated to be incompatible with the “west”, and 60% of both Spain and France agree. In Austria, one in three doesn’t want to have Muslim neighbors.
  • Anti-Muslim prejudice and racism in Germany occurs particularly frequently. A surveyed showed that 52% of those asked, found Islam as a threat. That 2019 survey confirmed that the negative perception Muslims remained stable at a high level for 10 years. The number of crimes classified as Islamophobia rose by 4.4% to 950 offences in 2019 according to German police statistics.
  • In a 2020 poll, Poland was found to have a strong dislike for not only Muslims in general, but Arabs (usually identified as Muslims), 55% of Polish respondents show dislike towards Arabs and have for more than 10 years.

References

Gallup, Inc. (2021, January 14). Islamophobia:    Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West. Gallup.Com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx

ISPU. (2020, October 1). American Muslim Poll 2020: Amid Pandemic and Protest | ISPU. Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. https://www.ispu.org/american-muslim-poll-2020-amid-pandemic-and-protest/

The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Massachusetts. (March 2021). 2020 annual report. https://www.cairma.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CAIR-MA-2020-Annual-Report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3bDAnWwc_LDTHEi1_txQAfUj-

Massoumi, N. (2020, March 6). Opinion | Why Is Europe So Islamophobic? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/opinion/europe-islamophobia-attacks.html

Sasnal, P., & Menouar, Y. E. (2020, October 6). There’s a social pandemic poisoning Europe: hatred of Muslims | Patrycja Sasnal and Yasemin El Menouar. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/28/europe-social-pandemic-hatred-muslims-blm

Shamim, F. (2020, April 16). Growing Islamophobia Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic. The Geopolitics. https://thegeopolitics.com/growing-islamophobia-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

What Is Islamophobia? (2019, May). Open Society Foundations. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/islamophobia-europe