Friendly Greetings Clears Up Prejudices Against Young Muslims in Switzerland

Beyond the usual clichés, Swiss Muslim Stories shows the life of Swiss Muslim women in all its diversity, with all its difficulties and successes. A project team made up of researchers and students from various universities in German-speaking Switzerland is responsible for implementing the project, which is sponsored by the Association of Muslim Youth Switzerland and aims to offer a positive addition to the current discourse on Islam.

The heart of the campaign is an interactive online platform (Swissmuslimstories.ch), which also breaks new ground in its implementation. In various short films, the people portrayed present their passions and talk about what motivates them. On the website, additional information on the various careers serves as a guide for young people in search of identity.

Military careers, studies or refugee backgrounds: the lives of the people portrayed could not be more different. However, what they all have in common is that they want to make a contribution to shaping society. The project is directed against polarizing and extreme voices that call for the exclusion of people based on their origin, religious affiliation or way of life. A total of 10 portraits were filmed and will be published regularly until the end of 2018 - accompanied by short clips on social media.

As part of the prevention of radicalization on the Internet, the project aims to find alternative narratives for young people in the orientation phase. The project is supported by the Federal Social Insurance Office (Platform Youth and Media), the Office for Combating Racism, the Office for Integration Issues of the Canton of Zurich and Mercator Switzerland, among others.

The campaign was realized by Friendly Greetings in collaboration with the Swiss Muslim Stories project team, under the auspices of the Swiss Muslim Youth Association (UMMAH).