MuslimischeStimmen.de Muslim voices

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Muslimische-Stimmen.de(Muslim voices)
NECE conference, Lisbon, April 26-28, 2007

• Clémence Delmas, Berlin

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(No Transcript)
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Presentation

• How it started
• Why Internet?
• Name of the website
• Goals
• Contributions, authors, categories and series
• Users and feedbacks
• Team
• Cooperation and long-term planning

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2005 Creation of the website

• Motivation
• Idea came after the murder of Theo Van Gogh at
  the end of 2004. Very few Muslims participated in
  the debate about integration that followed in
  Germany.
• Problems
• Monolithic and negative image of Muslims in the
  media
• Low participation of Muslims in public debates,
  no public articulation of their frustrations and
  concerns
• Muslims in a defensive position, Muslim agenda
  defined by Non-Muslims
• Lots of Muslims not represented by Muslim
  organisations
• Most websites presenting only one view of Islam
  without pluralistic approach

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Spaces for constructive and pluralistic
discussions were urgently needed !
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Why Internet?

• Low cost solution for communication
• Potential to reach a broad public, especially
  young people
• Possibility to publish different kinds of
  contributions texts but also photos, videos,
  music etc.
• Chat, poll and comment tools make real
  interactivity with and between the users possible
• Internet as archive discussions are documented
  (better than oral discussions)
• Anonymity may foster non politically correct and
  possibly more productive discussions

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Name of the website

• Muslim, not Islamic
• Muslim refers to people, Islamic to religion.
• Muslim is more neutral and encompasses not
• only religious but also cultural and political
  aspects
• of Muslim presence in Germany.

• Voices
• Voice is meant to be heard
• VoiceS shows pluralistic perspective

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The website is

• Independent It does not represent an
  organisation It is financed by the team
• Pluralistic The team does not censor but
  moderates Only words of hate are banished
• Non-religious It does not define the right
  Islam
• Civic It promotes values of tolerance and civic
  engagement

The website is NOT

• A forum
• A blog
• A lobbying instrument

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Goals

• For Muslims
• Promote pluralistic discussions and tolerance for
  different Muslim ways of life
• Encourage social and political participation
• Find solutions to existing problems
• For Non-Muslims
• Show Muslim diversity, fight against prejudices
• Offer a platform for underrepresented (and more
  tolerant?) voices
• Answer to questions and fears
• For journalists, politicians, students and
  scientists
• Offer an information tool about German Muslims

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Contributions, authors, categories, series

• Contributions
• Political statements, project descriptions,
  personal anecdotes, scientific articles,
  interviews, event announcements and proceedings,
  photos, videos, music, cartoons
• Authors
• Unknown and well-known, mostly between 20 and
  40,
• different professions, cultural and social
  backgrounds.
• Categories
• Projects, Politics, Society, Religion, Personal
  experiences, Berlin, Audio/Video, Opportunities
• Soon Dossiers
• Series
• StimmeN Aktuell
• mit Koffer, Kummer und Kismet
• Außensicht

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Users and feedbacks

• Users
• ?
• But increasing number of journalists,
  politicians and association representatives are
  subscribing to the newsletter
• Feedbacks
• Positive Journalists, German foundations
• 2 prizes Bündnis für Demokratie und Toleranz,
• Startsocial 2006.
• Almost no reaction from Muslim organisations, at
  least not officially (but no active communication
  in their direction)

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Team

• Since Aug. 2005 the conception, programming,
• moderation and communication are in the hands
  of
• Clémence Delmas, 28, politologist and
• Betül Yilmaz, 21, student in Islamic studies.
• 2007 The team is being enlarged, more and more
• people will be involved in the project

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Cooperation and long-term planning

• Cooperation with other websites and newspapers
  exchange of articles etc.
• Cooperation with Muslim organisations,
  foundations and public institutions event
  organisation, projects
• Local teams in all Germany
• More involvement of students
• More videos, less texts
• Fundraising (especially for programming and video
  production)

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Thank you for your attention!