Saddened by the terror attacks in New Zealand, he thinks they could have been prevented with security measures against far-right extremists and terrorists instead of focusing only -or mainly- on radicals favouring Daesh [ISIS in its Arabic transcription]. At the same time, he warns about hate speech contributing to an atmosphere that encourages more violence from all sides.

Salam Plan has talked to this researcher of the international SETA think tank during his visit to Madrid where he presented the results of the report at Casa Árabe (Arab House), an institution which is part of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain. He gives some hints to prevent Islamophobia from rising more and calls up on everybody to tackle the problem.

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How do you feel some days after the New Zealand attacks happened? Do you think the international community has reacted as expected, as it should have done?

I feel saddened by this very tragic event, of course because of the lives which have been lost, some of them children. But at the same time, I feel saddened that this could have been prevented, if the necessary precautions had been taken before.

Why do I say this? Because this has happened before, with Anders Breivik in Norway, and this should have been a wake-up call for everybody of how far the far-right terrorism advanced, not only in Europe, but internationally. We see the results of this in the United States, the attack against a synagogue carried out by a far-right terrorist. And there were other attacks also against Muslims in Canada[, UK]…

“The security apparatus in Europe has to take this issue seriously, tackle the far-right radicalisation. This way we will prevent not only future attacks by the far-right but also future attacks by Daesh, because they are feeding each other”

If the necessary precautions had been taken against the far-right rise and the far-right radicalization had been taken seriously, I think this could have been prevented. Because, consider: if you are a radical Muslim and you are searching on the internet or watching the videos of Daesh [Arabic name for ISIS], you will be in trouble quite easily: the intelligence services will detect you. But this is not the case with the far-right. They operate more freely, and I think that’s why these attacks are happening. That doesn’t mean that you can prevent everything, because there will be some lone wolves all the time.

I hope the future attacks will be prevented, because the atmosphere is quite ripe for these attacks. Unfortunately, this might happen anywhere in Europe nowadays. I think the security apparatus in Europe has to take this issue seriously, tackle the far-right radicalisation. This way we will prevent not only future attacks by the far-right but also future attacks by Daesh, because they are feeding each other. After this attack [in New Zealand], Daesh called for fresh attacks against the West or the Christians. This is a vicious circle and innocent people are getting killed.

>>> You may also read: Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS <<<

You talk about security measures, but what about the discourse to help prevent this? You just mentioned Daesh itself called for revenge, but Daesh itself attacks Muslims.

Yes, the majority of the victims of Daesh are Muslims. After these attacks [in New Zealand] there were some calls, especially in Turkey [, where I am based]: some people would say we should call this “Christian terrorism”.

I objected this, and many people objected this, because this doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity. You can justify violence with anything. There are some radical Buddhists, and some radical Orthodox… that doesn’t mean we blame all the Christians. That is why we need to be really careful about the rhetoric, because the rhetoric makes this kind of attacks possible.

People would think ‘Islamophobia is only hate speech, what’s the problem? I don’t like Muslims’. But it’s not just the rhetoric. Rhetoric, with time, turns into action and creates violence. The rhetoric has to change and there is a need for a political acknowledgement of the problem.

“The problems with Islamophobia and the far-right need to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, mainstream politicians are adopting the far-right ideas and their narratives”

First Islamophobia has to be acknowledged as a problem; many of the European countries are refusing the fact that there is a problem with Islamophobia. Even the European Union has now a coordinator on anti-Muslim hatred, but not anti-Muslim racism or Islamophobia.

Also, the problem with the far-right needs to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, mainstream politicians are adopting the far-right ideas and their narratives, and they are reluctant to challenge the far-right directly.

In your report you mention that Islamophobia does not only affect far-right politicians, but the whole range of them. How come?

Mainstream politicians are now under a lot of pressure in Europe. They cannot find a solution to the far-right; the only solution they see is what happened in Austria. The Christian democratic party ÖVP were a mainstream, reasonable party with a long tradition, but when the far-right started rising, they chose a young leader, [Sebastian] Kurz. He has muted his party more to the far-right. That was his solution to the problem, and he has become now a kind of the far-right leader. And that’s replicating itself in other European countries.

Now the three secret services in Austria are in the hands of the far-right [Government ally, Heinz- Christian] Strache.

For a certain amount of time the politicians were silent about the problem and at a certain point, they realized it’s unstoppable. (…) Islamophobia we find it also in the left party, in the Christian democrats… it has become a new form of racism that is acceptable to people.

“Islamophobia has become a new form of racism that is acceptable to people. We have far-right Islamophobia, but we also have Liberalist Islamophobia and Leftist Islamophobia”

May you give some examples?

Some people in the Green Party [in Germany] are calling for the headscarf ban. Or the former candidate of CDU, Friedrich Merz, said “We cannot allow Muslim children to get indoctrinated in Q’ran schools”.

Of course, we have far-right Islamophobia, but we also have Liberalist Islamophobia and Leftist Islamophobia.

Many feminists are in favour of banning the headscarf by saying ‘we are empowering the Muslim women’. Ok, there might be some Muslim women, youngsters, who may be forced by their families, but the overwhelming majority of them are choosing it by their own will. In France they are not allowed to study at the universities. Is this empowering women?

>>> You may read: Muslim European women claim their place in feminism<<<

In Spain now there is much of a debate going on whether the conservative Popular Party and liberal Ciudadanos should establish a cordon-sanitaire against far-right Vox in the next general election.

I think they should [establish a cordon sanitaire]. The cordon sanitaire [in Europe] was there, but it has disappeared. Look at the Austrian example. In the year 2000 [far-right leader] Jörg Haider became part of the [governing] coalition with his party. There was a big outcry in Europe, there was a diplomatic embargo against Austria.

” The ‘cordon sanitaire’ in Europe was there, but it has disappeared. Islamophobia is a threat to the democratic foundations of Europe”

Today, his party is again part of the coalition in a much stronger way. Nobody says a thing. The cordon sanitaire has disappeared. Why? Because of the Islamophobic narrative and discourse. If this is the problem of Muslims, I think everybody needs to rethink about it. If you let the far-right become normalized, it will just ruin the European Union. So, who is going to lose from this? Muslims? Not only. Islamophobia is a threat to the democratic foundations of Europe. We see the results. I hope New Zealand is a wake-up call for measures to be taken (…).

We need courageous leaders and civil society activists to tackle this problem. But many people think Islamophobia is a Muslims problem, it’s not our problem. Well, I don’t think so. If you allow this fire burn here, it will affect others (…).

Common people might have a prejudice against Islam and Muslims and common people in Turkey also have prejudices against Germans or Christians. This has to be tackled, of course, (but) that’s normal. The problem starts when this starts to become a policy and made into law, based on these notions of segregating people. We are talking more of a political problem.

>>> You may also read: Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim<<<

In your report you call for Islamophobia to be approached in the laws, just like the UN and OSCE ask. But from what you are telling me, it doesn’t seem this could become real any time soon.

No, I don’t think so. There is a strong opposition. Islamophobes say Islamophobia is a combat term developed by Islamists to reject any kind of criticism against Islam. Of course, we can critize Muslims and Islam, but the important thing is how we do this.

Why do you think it is so important that Islamophobia is put on paper, what would it help?

It would mean that the problem is acknowledged, it would help to record Islamophobic hate crime into a separate category. We would have statistics of what is going on the streets in terms of hate speech and attacks against Muslims and then we can talk about the problem. But if you don’t acknowledge the problem politically, then you are not willing to tackle the problem (…) and no actions are taken against this.

“Of course, we can critize Muslims and Islam. Common people might have a prejudice against Islam and in Turkey also against Christians. This has to be tackled, but the problem starts when this becomes a policy and turns into law”

According to a European survey promoted by the European Union and mentioned in your report, 12% of Muslims have reported discrimination to the authorities. Do you think that number is according to reality?

I think that’s only the tip of the iceberg. In Germany, we have 900 cases reported to the police. Many Muslims are not really reporting these cases to the police in Europe. First, many are not aware of the reporting mechanisms. Second, they might be socially isolated or very close to the people who are attacking them: the employer, teacher… Also, they are not really trusting the authorities due to fear that they will not be taken seriously, which happens.

In that survey it also came out 76% of Muslims feel attached to the country they live in. Well, I guess it’s because in many cases -may be most of them- it is because it is their own country, isn’t it? And there is always this idea of talking about Muslims as strangers or foreigners.

This is the main notion you hear: Muslims are living in ghettos, they’re not integrated, they’re not part of the society… well, look at the numbers. We are talking about 3^rd and 4^th generations living in Europe, they’re already European Muslims.

Which country would you say is the more Islamophobic European country?

It is really difficult to assess, we need to establish criteria. We’re just at the beginning of the process of uncovering the problem. I can tell the situation in France is quite bad for Muslims, in terms of political representation, which is quite low compared with the population. They’re not represented.

The rhetoric in Hungary and the Czech Republic is really radical against Muslims and there are almost no Muslims there, it’s like 0.001% of the population. But if you look at the rhetoric of the leaders of those countries it is as if next day the Muslims will take over Hungary or the Czech Republic.

You are presenting the third annual report on European Islamophobia and in June you will present the next one. Have you noticed a rise in these years?

What we’re seeing is that there are more violent attacks against Muslims. There is a case in Czech Republic, where a far-right person has tried to fake a terror attack against Czechs, he cut down trees on train lines twice and then he wrote fake letters in Arabic in order to fake a Daesh attack. He was arrested but was given a really minor sentence in the Court, because he had to take medicines for his high blood-pressure problem and that might affect his ability to think. That does also show the legal aspect of this issue.

“There are worrying signs that the far-right is increasing its activity to carry out attacks. The far-right is organized, there are training camps in Russia and Ukraine. There might be more terror attacks against Muslims in Europe”

There are worrying signs that the far-right is increasing its activity to carry out attacks. And that’s why I say, and I warn that there might be more (terror) attacks against Muslims in Europe and precautions must be taken.

So Muslims cannot feel safe in Europe?

The don’t already after what happened in New Zealand. It might happen everywhere.

It already happened in Europe as well but in a lower scale when it comes to the number of victims. In the UK there were two terror attacks against mosques…

Atmosphere is ripe, the infrastructure is there, far-right is organized, there are training camps in Russia and Ukraine… It’s just a matter of time.

That’s scary.

It is scary, yes.

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La entrada Expert warns about more terror attacks against Muslims in Europe if politicians don’t tackle Islamophobia se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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They will stay in the Spanish capital only for some weeks, due to the birth of the baby, as Alicia’s family lives there. But the couple’s home is in Luxembourg, where both work in the financial sector. When they met, did they think they would end up like this: married, with a daughter and living in the Grand Duchy? , the journalist asks. They look at each other and laugh. Their’s is a real story of love at first sight. Although the plan was to stay in Morocco, where they met and where Aladdin is from.

Alicia is from Madrid (Spain) and was in Casablanca (Morocco) finishing her master’s degree in banking and financial markets that she studied there. Her former professor Maite called her one day and asked whether she had something to do, recalls Alicia. Luckily enough, she did not have any plans for that evening, because otherwise she would not have been able to go to the dinner that her teacher organized that day with more alumni, and she would not have met Aladdin.

Alicia’s professor asked her whether she had something to do. Luckily enough, she did not, because otherwise she would not have met Aladdin

He was a student of the first class of that master’s degree she was completing six years later. As soon as they were introduced, the crush between each other began. Alicia’s smile conquered him… also her French accent, the language they share. She was fascinated by the serenity and maturity of a man who gave her good advice when she was lost about which traineeship to choose. “I advised her to stay in Morocco,” Aladdin laughs. He asked her phone number to Alicia and they started to go out together.

Almost four years later they continue laughing without stop, accomplices. Alicia López is now 29 years old and Aladdin Bennouna is 34. She is Catholic and he is Muslim.

When they were starting to know each other, Alicia remembers that she “liked to ask” things about Islam “to know where she was getting herself into”, because she was not an “expert” of her partner’s religion and did not trust things she found on the Internet.

Alicia’s smile conquered Aladdin… also her French accent. She was fascinated by the serenity and maturity of a man who gave her good advice when she was lost

“We gradually got to know each other on that aspect, too. Both are religions that can be complemented, that have points of convergence. I realized the important thing was what I felt for Aladdin, the values​ he has, which are very similar to mine. To be together, God willing, all your life, you need to find your soul mate and, look, it has been precisely with a person of another religion, from another country, but I am delighted, ” she says.

“Respect for the parents and family”, solidarity, not lying, God as a creator and protector… are some of the values cited by of them as their bond. They also share more mundane things, of course. They love to go to a good restaurant from time to time and enjoy travelling together. They recommend Peru and Chile, the destinations of their honeymoon.

“I realized the important thing was what I felt for Aladdin, the values​ he has, which are very similar to mine”

— Alicia

“I’m not gonna change you. I’m not going to force you to change to my religion, that’s not Islam either”

— Aladdin

Aladdin had no doubts about the difference in religion. “No, because I’m not gonna change you. I’m not going to force you to change to my religion, that’s not Islam either, ” he explains. “I respect her religion a lot, when she prays at home or goes to church I go with her and there’s no problem.” At home everyone prays separately and Aladdin likes to see his wife “close to God”.

The marriage proposal was a traditional one, in the presence of both families. “The surprise effect came (before), when he asked me ‘what ring do you like the most?'” , laughs Alicia. Knowing why they were going to meet did not make the moment less emotional: “Aladdin gave a speech in front of everyone and we all ended up crying,” recalls his wife. And that despite the fact that he improvised what he said.

Alicia and Aladdin’s wedding celebrated joining two cultures together. Family pictures

Alicia says that her parents have always granted her the power to make her own decisions and had no problem at all with the wedding. “My parents have been living a lot in Arab countries. My father (also) was assigned (as a diplomat) in Mauritania, Senegal, Morocco … I think that contributes a lot to open minds, ” she says.

Aladdin’s parents were also happy with the wedding. “And yes, look: there is a difference in religion, but in our religion you can marry a woman who believes in a ‘religion of heaven’, who is not an atheist or a Buddhist … Because in the Muslim religion you also have to believe [in a certain way] in the other religions, ” he explains.

“The mistake is to mix politics and religion. (And) of course migrants are to adapt to the laws of the country. Nor should these laws favour one religion over another”

— Aladdin

They married in 2017. The civil wedding was in Spain, and the most festive part was in Morocco, sharing “the richness of Moroccan culture” with the guests, says Alicia.

She believes that hate speech coming from politicians such as those of the Spanish Vox party are mainly due to what she calls a “climate of instability” at the border areas of Morocco and Spain because of what she considers a mismanagement of illegal immigration. “The mistake is to mix politics and religion. (And) of course migrants are to adapt to the laws of the country. Nor should these laws favour one religion over another, ” Aladdin suggests.

He likes to speak to her baby-daughter about politics when he gets to sleep her, because singing is not his thing, he admits. “I tell her: ‘let’s see, what do you want to talk about’? Brexit? “, he laughs. “Sometimes she does not like it and we change the subject,” he continues laughing. Lullabies are left to the mother.

“Amelia is Muslim, but she will grow up in an environment where nobody will say: ‘This is not that way’. There will be an atmosphere of respect and understanding of the two religions”

— Alicia

Little Amelia is Muslim, something that her parents already had talked about when they decided to start a family. But Christmas and the Festival of Sacrifice will be celebrated in their house equally, because they belong to the traditions and cultures of his grandparents, her mother explains. “She will grow up in an international environment, where nobody will say: ‘This is not that way’. There will be an atmosphere of respect and understanding of the two religions,” says Alicia.

Amelia has not woken up during the entire interview, nor when her parents have taken her in their arms to appear with them on some pictures. She is quiet and calm, while her caring parents cannot help but doting lovingly on her.

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The happy couple goes for a walk with their baby in Madrid. © Salam Plan

La entrada Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Ramia Chaoui shows and speaks about all kind of things there: from make-up or how she got to know her husband to sharing the traditions of her other homeland, Morocco, or the problems Muslim people -like her- face in Spain.

She was recently invited to open a high-level meeting to counter Islamophobia, organized by the European Commission in Brussels. “We need to stop asking people like me how to integrate, because we don’t need to integrate in our own home”, she requested in front of the Justice European Commissioner, Vera Jourova, and other politicians representing European countries.

“We need to stop asking people like me how to integrate, because we don’t need to integrate in our own home”

She speaks with Salam Plan on the phone from Barcelona before going to work. For all those afraid of Muslims, Ramia points out “Islam is totally compatible with democracy, it just needs to be well understood”. For her, “being Muslim is trying to be a better person for oneself and for the others and everything that surrounds us”.

In your videos, you always greet by saying “salam zyonat”. What does that mean?

“Hi, beauties”. “Zeyn” is like beauty. I liked to open with something in Arabic, which also represents another part of my identity and my culture. I like to say hello that way, because it defines me. “Salam” means “peace” and is part of the Muslim greeting, and than all my videos are in Spanish, which is my mother tongue and the one I can better express myself in.

What made you open your own YouTube channel?

The lack of representation in mass media, searching for a place where I could express myself and talk about the issues where nobody listened to us, to have there my version of events without it being sweetened or censored.

Also, a little bit from an educational perspective. I listened to many questions around me about things I thought people knew well, stereotypes. Whenever I talked to new people who were hardly in touch with Muslims, I was very surprised to see the image they had about that part of the society.

>>> Follow Salam Plan- ‘journalism against hate’ on Twitter and Facebook . Soon on YouTube as well in English!<<<

On Ramia Schannel you talk about all kind of things. What are the issues you like to speak more about?

At the beginning I made a lifestyle and entertainment channel, about how to combine the spiritual life with the non- Muslim Western normal life like any other girl of my age.

Now I have changed the focus to separate it a bit from the personal sphere and take it more to the activist field [against Islamophobia], but in a lighter way, not so hardcore. I have young followers and don’t want to be preachy.

I try to make the videos entertaining but at the same time with a message or moral of the story, or to explain something about Muslims, a Muslim festivity… so that people have a window to look into the life of a Western Muslim person and how our life is.

Earlier you said that one of the reasons to star your channel was tackling stereotypes about Muslims. Which ones would you highlight?

To get turned into a foreigner, that is one of the things which annoys me the most. For example, me living in Catalonia, that people speak to me in Spanish or slowly so that I can understand them… Those kind of things which people may do with good intentions, but I belong to the people who think that we’ve been here for a long time already and migration is nothing recent.

The fact that people are surprised that you have a degree, that you speak well the language, that you don’t have any accent…

And what affects me the most is the issue with the lack of equal opportunities and the discrimination, especially in the labour field for Muslim women.

“One of the things which annoys me the most is to get turned into a foreigner. Me living in Catalonia, that people speak to me in Spanish or slowly so that I can understand them”

In fact, there is a video in your channel where you explain that you are considering to take off your hijab.

It’s something you always bear in mind. Not now, but it’s true that all these years I have been wearing it, you ask yourself and weigh up: “Wow, it is really affecting me”. But well, than you remember why you put it on in the first place and what it means to you and you try to look ahead.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t have moments of doubts and difficulties… and understanding that other women face the same difficulties and finally take it off due to social pressure.

What difficulties have you encountered due to the hijab?

Mainly, being able to do job interviews and getting a job. They will choose someone who doesn’t wear it if you are equally qualified, or not so equally: you may be a bit more prepared or may be speak more languages. Nevertheless, the scales seems to tip to the other side.

The issue about doing a traineeship to get your degree, I get many messages from girls. Many of them see themselves forced to take it off or not doing the traineeship. I think Education should come first. Later in the labour market, I can understand that a company may be free to choose who it hires. But if a company chooses to offer traineeships to the students, it shouldn’t make a difference: they’re not your workers, they’re people who come to learn and will leave.

Me personally, I have seen myself obliged to accept another king of jobs, because I couldn’t choose the same way my fellow students did. I thought that was the way it goes. Although it might not have convinced me, I took the job to have one.

“The issue about doing a traineeship to get your degree… I get many messages from girls who see themselves forced to take the hijab off “

You have more than 38,000 followers. What kind of profile do they have?

They’re mainly female, 80% approximately. Spaniards and from other European countries, also from Mexico. Between 18 and 30 years old.

What kind of questions or comments do they have?

More than that, I think they see me a bit like an inspiration. If you see you’re not the only one facing problems or suffering, you don’t feel so lonely.

What happens sometimes is that these things stay in the community or within the family, you don’t speak about them that much. And you think it isn’t happening to nobody else and that you are the unlucky one.

I think that sharing and speaking about it, helps to fight against it. I try to motivate. There are girls who have even asked me why they should study if they’re not gonna get a job anyway. Loosing motivation like this is worrying.

I try to change the approach of the youngest girls. Feeling ashamed of your culture, of your religion, because they’re always speaking bad about it, because you don’t see positive examples, no examples of people who overcome [the problems]… But to see someone who -achieving more or less- follows her dreams, trying to change a bit -as much as possible-, I think it is good for our young ladies.

“There are girls who have even asked me why they should study if they’re not gonna get a job anyway”

You just mentioned something key, I think: that some people feel ashamed due to what is happening around them.

I have seen girls in their first adolescence years telling their mothers not to pick them up from school because she wears the veil and they don’t want to be seen with them.

Or now I see my little sister, who is very proud of her culture, but I remember that when I was little, I felt ashamed and didn’t want to go to school after our holidays in Morocco with henna on my hands. I tried to wash it off, because the kids told me it was pooh and laughed at me.

On the contrary, I now see generations, the youngest, who are very proud of their culture, with henna on their hands, wearing the veil… I think we should appropriate our culture again and be proud of who we are. Because it’s true that sometimes we have tried to hide to get unnoticed, without causing a stir: go to work, feed our children, sleep and back again to the beginning.

And it’s our generation now who is vindicating more the richness of having a diverse identity, a diverse origin, being from here but also from there and being a richer person thanks to that.

“Sometimes we Muslims have tried to hide to get unnoticed, without causing a stir: go to work, feed our children, sleep and back again to the beginning”

You recently shared your experience opening a high-level meeting in front of the Justice European Commissioner, Vera Jourova, and other politicians of the EU countries. There were also other Muslim activists and civil representatives. Do you think it was useful?

I am always very optimistic. I don’t know if I’m so optimistic that I’m naïf, but I want to think that it was indeed. And if it is useless from the political point of view, I think that the civil society there are loads of things being done. I was very happy and proud to see that representation, mainly a female representation, in that meeting. Whenever I see Muslim ladies, so trained and ready to fight, I feel proud as if it was a personal achievement. Whether it is useful or not, I have learned a lot.

Ramia Chaoui holding the opening speech at a high-level meeting in Brussels. © Salam Plan

That meeting was in the European capital. There are Europeans afraid of Muslims not respecting democracy. What would you tell them?

I’d tell them that Islam is totally compatible with democracy; it just needs to be well understood.

I think there is much misinformation or confusion around terminology related to Islam. Nobody studies it in depth, the only interest is to take those paragraphs or alleyahs [Q’ran verses] out of context which may benefit someone politically to sow fear and get votes. In the end, it’s this manipulation and using Islam as a weapon to get personal benefit.

In fact, a well understood Islam promotes democracy.

“A well understood Islam promotes democracy”

Why?

For example, if we simply focus on the prophet Muhammad’s life, we can see that he always consulted people surrounding him, he always asked for advice, and that being -as we understand it- God’s envoy. One of the main pillars of democracy is the public query, what the majority thinks.

In the recent regional elections in Andalusia (southern Spain), Vox’s party got 12 seats and Muslims are a key part of their politics. In their election platform, they devote a chapter to Muslims under the title “Defence, Security and Borders”.

[She laughs slightly]. Ok, how funny, how nice. I prefer to think that the majority of people doesn’t read the election manifesto nor is very well informed of what they vote, because otherwise, we wouldn’t drift in the current direction.

The defence of Spanish unity doesn’t need to go hand in hand with harming and loosing civil rights nor with more confrontation. I believe people who voted for Vox voted for Spanish unity.

Vox stands for issues like “shutting fundamentalist mosques” or the “expulsion of imams who spread fundamentalism, the despise of women or Jihad”.

With “expulsion” I guess they mean foreign imams, but there are Spanish imams. What do we do with that? And “despise of women”, it’s them who want to repeal the bill on gender violence. I think it is a cheap, simplistic and superficial populism.

How do you think Islamophobia Will evolve in the next years in Spain?

I think there is more consciousness and people are getting to know more about Islamophobia. I think it will keep that direction. I hope politicians will be more careful in their discourses. I hope the situation will get better: the integration of so many women with veil who are already working, including me; that normalization of seeing Muslim women in each and every sphere of society.

Your channel is also for non- Muslim people who want to know more. If you were to explain in just a few words what it means to you to be Muslim, how would you describe it?

Being Muslim is being like any other person, but having in the centre of his or her daily priorities -or values- to try to be a better person for oneself and for the others and everything that surrounds us; also being beneficial and contribute to society.

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La entrada Ramia Schannel, the Muslim YouTuber from Spain who advised the European Commission se publicó primero en Salam Plan.