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The Euro-Arab Foundation and the Iraqi Al Nahrain Center solidify a partnership to exchange knowledge and conduct joint researches

A. Sánchez, secretario ejecutivo de FUNDEA, y Ali Naser Bunya, director general del centro Al Nahrain tras la firma del convenio en la sede de FUNDEA (Granada).
FUNDEA- Al Nahrain Center

The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies has signed this Wednesday a collaboration agreement with the Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies – National Security Consulting, based in Baghdad (Iraq), in order to cooperate and establish productive relationships in different fields of the research undertaken by both institutions.

The Al-Nahrain Centre for Strategic Studies is a research centre sponsored by the Iraqi National Security Council that develops strategic studies responding to the interests, challenges and threats of the Arab country, both at the national level and in the Middle East region.

The meeting took place at the Euro-Arab headquarters, in Granada, where the Iraqi delegation was led by the Director General of the Al-Nahrain Centre for Strategic Studies, the lawyer Ali Naser Bunyan al-Lami, accompanied by the Engineer Director General of the Directorate of Administration and Finance of the Office of the Iraqi National Security Advisor, Hayder Abdulameer Abed al-Yasiri, and the Head of the Department of Social and Psychological Studies of the Al-Nahrain Centre for Strategic Studies, Shatha Kadhim , and the official liaison of the European Union Consultative Mission in Iraq, Marwah Dallyousif.

The meetings between both institutions, which lasted two days, were also attended by an official from the Directorate General for Home Affairs (DG Home) of the European Commission.

The executive secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio J. Sánchez Ortega, stated that this agreement “consolidates our presence in the MENA region and in Iraq, where understanding the current security and prevention conditions is crucial.” Sánchez has expressed his satisfaction at the establishment of this link with an Iraqi center – he said – “so prestigious that it houses ten different research departments. Without a doubt, both institutions will benefit from this collaboration.”

The memorandum includes among its objectives the exchange of research and studies, as well as books, statistics and other types of information arising from their respective work. The Euro-Arab Foundation and the Al-Nahrain Centre will work together on projects that are characterised by their strategic and topical dimensions, or those related to public policies. In terms of scientific dissemination and training, the agreement covers joint research or studies, as well as the organisation of workshops, seminars and conferences in areas of common interest or the joint publication of books and publications.

“This agreement is part of the objectives of our centre, which are based on the directives of the advisor to the Iraqi National Security Board and which consist of establishing relations with different centres dedicated to research and cultural dissemination,” explained the director general of the Al Nahrain centre, Ali Naser Bunyan. “The Euro-Arab Foundation not only addresses these aspects -he added- but it also works to strengthen dialogue with the Arab world, of which Iraq is a part.“

The programme of activities included the presentation of the Euro-Arab Foundation’s research, cultural and training activities, such as the new Diploma in Environmental Management and Social Responsibility or the Diploma in Management of Non-Profit Entities or Endowment Management (awqaf) for Saudi students. Likewise, several of the research projects in which Euro-Arab is involved in different areas were presented: prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism, fight against hate speech and hate crimes, protection of places of worship of different faiths, dismantling of human trafficking networks or socio-educational interventions, among others.

As part of the extensive programme of activities, the visiting delegation was able to learn first-hand about the Joint Centre University of Granada – Army Training and Doctrine Command with a visit to the MADOC, where they were able to learn more about its activities at national level. The programme included cultural activities, such as a visit to La Madraza, the cultural centre of the University of Granada (https://lamadraza.ugr.es/).

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News Projects

Workshop “Misinformation and disinformation by state and non-state actors”

On 14 June, the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies organised the workshop Misinformation and disinformation by state and non-state actors, which brought together representatives of EU member states, researchers and high-level experts in the digital world. The main objective of this workshop, presented by Javier Ruipérez, Director of the Euro-Arab Foundation’s Research and Projects Department, and Eva Jiménez, from RAN Policy Support, was to address and mitigate the effects of disinformation and the influence of external actors with malicious intentions in the European Union, as well as to analyse current trends and threats and identify the main actors involved and understand their methods, highlighting disinformation campaigns and hybrid strategies.

Daniel Pérez García, Euro-Arab researcher, moderated the session on how to increase resilience in the face of false information and misinformation. In the European context, the prevalence of both misinformation, i.e. false or inaccurate information spread without malicious intent, often as a result of rumours, misunderstandings or mistakes (El Mikati, et al.), and disinformation, the deliberate creation and dissemination of false information to mislead and manipulate the public (Torres-Soriano), has increased significantly in recent years, exacerbated by various factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts and the rise of new anti-system movements.

This turbulent environment has also seen the growth of conspiracy theories and the influence of external actors engaged in Sharp power actions that exploit digital platforms to carry out operations aimed at destabilising European democracies,

Facing disinformation with digital education and critical thinking

The workshop highlighted the intricate ways in which disinformation campaigns undermine democratic processes and sow social discord. Examples of state-sponsored disinformation were presented, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated responses to protect democratic integrity. Similarly, building resilience to disinformation promoting radical narratives was further explored, underlining the importance of a holistic, society-wide approach involving various sectors, including government, civil society and citizens.

Discussions underlined the importance of digital education, critical thinking skills, security and social cohesion measures at the local level to empower societies to identify and effectively combat disinformation. Particular attention was paid to the benefits of integrating emotional governance strategies to better manage the current poly-crisis, highlighting the importance of addressing emotions and public perceptions in crisis management strategies. Overall, the workshop underlined the imperative of collective action and innovative strategies to strengthen societies against the disruptive effects of disinformation in the European Union and its member states.

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News Projects Rebel EN

ReBel, a new project that will foster solidarity and promote a sense of belonging among migrant women

This Tuesday took place the official online launch of the ReBel (Redesign Belonging) project, which aims to address the challenges of our society related to solidarity and a sense of belonging by providing a co-creation model that fosters belonging and empowers migrant women who have been in host countries for more than five years. They will be the cornerstone and will collaborate with professional designers to create models and solutions for different contexts in the project’s development countries: Spain, Finland and the Netherlands.

ReBel has a duration of 20 months and is co-financed with 411,455 euros from the European Commission in the framework of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) and will be coordinated by the Finnish university Laurea of Applied Sciences. Together with Laurea, the project consortium includes the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Education (Spain), the international organisation What Design Can Do (The Netherlands) and the VISIO training centre (Finland). The Euro-Arab Foundation will be responsible for carrying out the research and benchmarking part of local, national and international projects focusing on migrant belonging. The results will be used to develop a survey to elicit migrants’ experiences and feelings of belonging.

Spain to host a meeting of migrant women

Euro-Arab will be in charge of the activities in Spain, which will take place in parallel in the other countries involved, bringing together migrant women with local citizens, NGO representatives, local and regional authorities, in workshops where open dialogue between the groups will be promoted. Migrants will be able to present the obstacles they faced, and continue to face, in integrating into the host society, as well as their resilience strategies. NGOs will also have the opportunity to talk about their experiences with regard to employment, education, hate crimes or xenophobia.

These workshops will then be used to develop improvements that both authorities and NGOs can implement in their day-to-day work. In order to involve policy makers, Euro-Arab will organise a roundtable in Spain, which will also include members of the European Commission. The researchers will draft three policy briefs per country which will be made public and translated into the main languages of migrants to ensure their accessibility.

Upcoming events

On 5 July, WDCD will organise an event in Amsterdam where the project will be presented and in September the official presentation in hybrid format (face-to-face and online) will take place in Finland.

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EUKH EN News RADICALIZACION EN

The Euro-Arab Foundation will be part of the EU’s new knowledge hub to prevent radicalisation

Presentación Centro de Conocimiento de la UE para Prevenir la Radicalización

The European Commission has just consolidated one of the most complex projects in the field of prevention of radicalisation, the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation, which was presented this morning at an event in Brussels. The contract, awarded to a consortium of eleven European entities, including the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (based in Granada), has a duration of four years and is funded to the tune of 60 million euros. The aim of this centre, which takes over from the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), is to create a platform that produces, compiles and disseminates knowledge and effective practices in the field of radicalisation prevention, both for EU member states and for third countries that are involved. 

Main actors and partners of the EU Knowledge Hub

The executive secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez Ortega, expressed “great satisfaction” at seeing how “the process we started working on more than ten years ago is now enshrined with a much more holistic vision, capable of anticipating the perpetration of violent actions and making use of new online tools”.

The initiative will be led by the Danish NTU International, and the consortium includes the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Spain), Innovative Prison Systems-IPS (Portugal), the Polish Platform for Homeland Security, the Centre for Security Studies (Greece), the Hellenic Ministry of Citizen Protection, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, the European Research and Project Office-GmbH (Greece), the Deep Blue Research Centre (Italy), the European Centre for Studies and Initiatives (Italy) and the Romanian National Intelligence Academy Mihai Viteazul.

Activities and services of the EU Knowledge Hub

“This project is based on full respect for diversity and fundamental rights,” says the Euro-Arab Executive Secretary. “From our experience with international cooperation and the ties that unite us with the Arab world, we will work to address the internal security priorities of these third countries in complete synergy and collaboration with European needs, without forgetting the importance of communication and the dissemination of knowledge,” adds Sánchez.

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News

We participate in the round table on Islamophobia organised by the Qatari government in Doha

Conferencia sobre islamofobia en Catar el pasado año, 2023

The Deputy Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, Bárbara Boloix Gallardo, is travelling to Doha to participate in the roundtable ‘Combating Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism: New Grounds for Understanding and Policy’, a conference that will take place on 9-10 June in the Qatari capital and has been organised by the Department of Policy Planning of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conference will be divided into six sessions, with the first and second sessions exploring current narratives of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and questioning how they should be addressed. The third session will address the challenges facing the media in the fight against racism.

The second day of the conference will open with the fourth session dedicated to the opportunities and perspectives of the fight against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in history, art, society and culture, where the Deputy Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Arabist and Doctor in the History of Al-Andalus from the University of Granada, will speak.

This will be followed by the fifth session, which will address the intersection between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism from geopolitical and historical perspectives, and will end with a concluding debate that will explore new joint approaches and the way forward.

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IN2PREV-en News Projects

National Mentoring Event for Social Entities working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Daniel Pérez García, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation and coordinator of IN2PREV

This morning, the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies held a national mentoring event aimed at leading professionals from social organisations, NGOs and mediation services working with asylum seekers and refugees. The director of the Department of Research and Projects, Javier Ruipérez Canales, together with the coordinator of this activity and researcher of this department, Daniel Pérez García, and Celia Sánchez Villarejo, both researchers of this department, have explained what the mentoring programme Approaching mentoring for a successful inclusion of Refugees and Asylum Seekers of the European project IN2PREV of which the Euro-Arab consortium is part of, and whose objectives include fostering cooperation and collaboration between police forces and NGOs representing refugees and asylum seekers. It also aims to establish accompaniment and inclusion strategies, adapting them to each context and improving the skills of professionals, thus mitigating any risk of vulnerability initially detected.

This mentoring programme, which will take place in 2025 simultaneously in Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Moldova, Portugal, Poland and Romania, is a group mentoring process, where each mentor can have up to 3 mentees. It includes a preparation phase for mentorees, as well as session plans that will help to create a safe space for the mentorees and foster better communication and the development of a climate of trust between the mentorees and the host community.

Thematic organisation of each mentoring session

A total of twelve mentoring sessions with an approximate duration of one and a half hours each have been established. They will deal with: 1. needs assessment; 2. bureaucratic issues involved in the migration process of the mentored persons; 3. integration into the host community with, for example, an open discussion on the differences and similarities between the country of origin and the host country; 4. language barriers; 5. religion and culture; 6. job search and the working environment; 7. educational environment; 8. social integration; 9. mental health; 10. health care system; 11. the connection with the country of origin and 12. reflection and closing session.

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EN PARTES News Projects

«From Margins to Targets: How to Counter Exclusion and Protect Religious Minorities»

Since March 2023, the PARTES project («Participatory approaches to protecting places of worship» – more information here), funded by the EU, has been investigating attacks on religious communities and respective places of worship. Their findings show that minority faiths are more likely to be targeted than mainstream religions. However, the question of the social motivations of this phenomenon remains to be answered.

Read the complete article by our researcher José Luis Salido here.

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EUKH EN News Projects RADICALIZACION EN

We participate in the RAN YOUNG meeting where youth take the floor to confront polarisation and hate speeches

The third meeting of the RAN Practitioners Young Platform, the platform of young people, experts on radicalisation and prevention of the European Commission’s Radicalisation Awareness Network, took place in Zagreb (Croatia) on 2nd and 3rd May. Among the participants was Euro-Arab Foundation researcher Daniel Pérez García who together with the other young people explored the local impact of global challenges, such as war and international conflicts, on European youth and created proposals to mitigate the different repercussions on themselves and their communities.

Daniel Pérez García, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation, participates in RAN Young Practitioners

The recommendations revolved around four themes: mental health, polarisation, hate speech and hate crime. The Euro-Arab researcher was part of the hate crime group, which addressed how hate speech and hate crimes can precede atrocities, including genocide, or the use of social media and digital platforms as facilitators of the spread of hate.

The meeting concluded that hate speech, along with misinformation, leads to stigmatisation, discrimination and violence on a large scale, and emphasised the need not to underestimate the influence of global conflicts on individuals that can even lead to collective trauma.

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News

The Euro-Arab closes ties with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

The Euro-Arab Foundation, together with the universities of Almeria, Granada, Jaen, Alicante, Salamanca, Valladolid and San Jorge, were part of the Spanish delegation that travelled to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in April. This trip included an interesting and very full agenda of visits to two countries that are of great interest to Spain in terms of the possibility of expanding both academic and scientific cooperation with them. The trip was organised by the Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education.

The Euro-Arab Foundation, represented by Antonio Sánchez Ortega, Executive Secretary of the Granada-based institution, was part of this Spanish delegation, which had a busy and very interesting agenda with the universities of Samarkand and Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan.

Collaboration agreement with the Uzbek institute Kamoliddin Behzod

For the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, “this trip and the contacts made during it have been highly interesting, among them we should highlight the one with the National Institute of Fine Art and Design (Kamoliddin Behzod), with which the Euro-Arab Foundation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding”. This collaboration framework, signed by Antonio Sánchez, on behalf of the Euro-Arab Foundation, and Abbosjon Mirzorahimov, rector of this university, “offers a framework of institutional cooperation for cultural exchange and development of collaborative projects in the field of the culture of understanding and diversity”, as Sánchez pointed out.

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EN PARTES News Projects

The PARTES consortium meets in Brussels to exchange achievements and learnings

The entities associated in PARTES, the European project that seeks to protect places of worship, met on April 22nd and 23rd in Brussels in order to share the lessons learned and achievements reached so far. The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies is part of it and its researcher, José Luis Salido Medina, coordinated the PARTES Conference held in Melilla in March, which brought together representatives of different religious confessions.

Our reasearcher attended both, the workshop on April 22, and the Steering Committee on the 23rd. The workshop discussed the current challenges and issues that places of worship are facing. It also addressed the importance of bridging the communication gaps that may exist between the various religious communities and between them and the authorities. On its part, the fourth meeting of the PARTES Steering Committee was held to evaluate the work of the project over the past four months, identify key issues for discussion and develop a collaborative plan for the coming months.

Currently, the PARTES consortium is compiling local communication and security strategies to protect places of worship in ten European Union countries.