On the upcoming date of Tuesday, June 27, we will be presenting the results of the project “Kif-kif: Comics for Inclusiveness” developed by the Al Fanar Foundation for Arab Knowledge, with support in Madrid from the Autonomous Region of Madrid’s Department of Education, the Municipal Government of Fuenlabrada, the Municipal Government of Madrid and Casa Árabe.

In all, the project has been started up at 13 secondary schools in Catalonia and Madrid, including seven in the Autonomous Region of Madrid (in the cities of Madrid, Alcorcón, Fuenlabrada, Parla, Torrejón, Galapagar and Rivas), with five theme workshops held at each of them. During the upcoming school year, the project will be carried out in Murcia, the Basque Country, Ceuta and Catalonia, in addition to the Autonomous Region of Madrid.

This round table discussion will be preceded by a day of reflection with evaluation of the project results, with the participants and main role-players in the project, as well as monitors, educators, representatives from the schools where the workshops were held and some of the students who took part in them.

Taking part in the round table discussion will be representatives of the Autonomous Region of Madrid and city governments, which will be discussing the reasons which have led to supporting the project’s development, as well as the need to frame it within the full project of relations with Muslim communities; representatives of the high schools where the workshops were held, who will be able to share their experiences and the reality of how these topics are lived in the classroom, and specialists from Al Fanar, who will present the project results and the conclusions of their evaluation, reached during the prior day of reflection.

The general goal of the project is to use comics and games to promote interculturalism and the inclusion of young Muslims in their closest surrounding environment, expanding upon intercultural and problem-solving skills of all sorts. With greater inclusiveness, Islamophobia can be fought, and we can therefore increase the potential for putting a stop to Jihadist radicalism among the young Muslim population in our country.

Taking part in the round table discussion will be Pedro Villena, the General Director of Casa Árabe; Matías Granados Díaz-Pintado, head of the Required Secondary Schooling and Baccalaureate Area in the Department of Education, Youth and Sports of the Autonomous Region of Madrid; Francisco Manuel Paloma González, city councilwoman for Youth, Childhood, Training and Employment at the Municipal Government of Fuenlabrada, and Mónica Carrión, Al Fanar Foundation projects director.

Project video