Restorative responses to islamophobia

“When you build community and you see someone as a person, then you are less likely to cause harm to them. You are also more aware of the harm you cause when it happens.” – Julie Friesen, Director of Programs at Community Justice Initiatives

What is Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is a way of addressing conflict and crime in a way that enables the person who caused the harm, people who were affected by the harm, and the community to create a meaningful solution.

“The Together Project has enabled us to practically implement a recommendation in our recent community consultation report to bring restorative justice responses to Islamophobic hate incidents. We are very pleased that Muslim women have been trained as mediators for such cases through this project. Furthermore, The Together Project helps shine a light on the issue of Islamophobia in our community and engages the community in building a collective response to Islamophobic hate incidents.” – Sarah Shafiq, Coordinator of Coalition of Muslim Women of KW’s Together Against Islamophobia Program

A deadly shooting at a Quebec mosque. A runner disqualified from a race for wearing a hijab. A racial slur yelled on a city bus. These incidents of Islamophobia are all too real for many Muslims around the world. But in Waterloo Region, a new pilot project involving the Coalition of Muslim Women of KW (CMW) and Community Justice Initiatives (CJI) may offer an opportunity for healing and community building.

About the Project
The one-year project, titled “Together”, pilots a restorative approach to incidents of hate crime in Waterloo Region by offering a safe space for people to build understanding of one another. The two organizations are working together to develop a model to apply a restorative justice approach to hate based incidents or crimes against members of the Muslim community, particularly women. Under the Together project, CMW and CJI are training groups of volunteers from both organizations as mediators for cases of hate based harm. The Together team will build community in many ways, including providing mediation services in hate based harm situations as well as facilitating restorative justice circles in the community.

Impact of the Grant
The pilot project was made possible due to a 2019 Community Fund grant from Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) for $35,000. The organizations utilized the money to first hold discussions on what the project should look like, what they hoped to accomplish, and to conduct research in this area. Then training was implemented in the following phases:

  1. CJI brought together a group of volunteers from CMW for transformative mediation training

  2. CMW brought together experienced CJI mediators to learn more about Islamophobia

  3. All volunteers were trained in mediation and restorative practice with a focus on people impacted by Islamophobia

  4. The training was opened up to people across Waterloo Region

Note: At the time of writing this Impact: Annual Report, COVID-19 has impacted the work of both the Coalition of Muslim Women of KW and Community Justice Initiatives, and the services both organizations provide across Waterloo Region. If you want to learn more about the “Together” project, or support either organization directly, please visit www.cmw-kw.org or www.cjiwr.com.


Note: This story was written prior to Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation and Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation unifying to become Waterloo Region Community Foundation. Although the story was created by KWCF, we have updated the organization name to WRCF throughout the story.

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