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A guide to protect places of worship

Synagogues, churches and mosques are of vital importance for social coexistence and cohesion in the European Union; however, they have been, and can become, targets of potential terrorist attacks as witnessed in the last decade. This has been one of the main reasons for launching the SHIELD project, funded by the European Commission’s Internal Security Fund (ISF) programme. The entities involved in SHIELD, including the Granada-based Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, are clear about the need to create a “cultural shield” that defends both individuals and religious communities, since, when talking about the physical security of infrastructures, aspects such as the environment, culture, social inclusion and inter-religious dialogue are underlined.

The project consortium was composed of eighteen partners from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, research centres, intercultural institutes, local and security authorities and even religious associations with the common goal of identifying and proposing concrete solutions to burning issues of common interest, such as assessing the risk and vulnerability of places of worship to potential terrorist attacks.

Tackling extremism and protecting religious freedom

The establishment of projects such as SHIELD promote mutual understanding and increase respect, they also facilitate the meeting and sharing of knowledge, creating synergies. In this case, SHIELD has facilitated the development of a common strategy for reducing threats and increasing religious freedom. During the two years of the project, SHIELD has hosted several dialogue meetings aimed at countering religious extremism, with the co-participation of state security forces, the society and security and security technology companies.

The final event, held in Brussels, was attended by Tamara Muñoz, Programme Officer of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, as well as representatives from ten European countries and the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). In addition, copies of the guide produced by SHIELD entities (downloadable here) with guidelines on how to increase security and protect places of worship from violence and the threat of terrorism could be collected.

The guide has been translated into nine languages, including English and Arabic, and is aimed at religious community leaders, security officials, local policy makers and law enforcement officials. It gathers data on violent aggressions in Europe that show that the Muslim community has been the most attacked between 2000 and 2020, suffering 48% of the total aggressions compared to 29% of the Christian community and 24% of the Jewish community. This document aims, on the one hand, to raise awareness on the prevention of radicalisation and the issue of security and, on the other hand, to provide practical and operational guidance on risk assessment tools, technical security measures or mitigation approaches after an attack with the provision of victim support services.

The research continues

Although SHIELD has come to an end, another European project, PARTES, will continue to work until April 2025 with the same objective. In this case, the Euro-Arab Foundation in Spain is leading the work package “Threats and Responses Landscape”, a research to establish an overview of attacks on religious communities, the hate crimes they suffer and existing protection measures, as well as the identification of good practices of cooperation between religious institutions and public authorities.

PARTES’ priorities are to improve cooperation between public authorities and religious communities, to conduct awareness-raising campaigns, trainings and seminars, as well as to take stock, evaluate and exchange best practices and tools in this field.

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EN Shield News Projects

The SHIELD project comes to an end with a Guide for the Protection of Places of Worship

On 28 February, the final conference of the European SHIELD project took place in Brussels with the presentation of the results as a formula for coexistence between people of different faiths. The event was attended by the programme manager of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Tamara Muñoz, as well as representatives from ten European countries and the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). The project has aimed to identify and propose concrete solutions to burning issues of common interest, such as assessing the risk and vulnerability of places of worship to potential terrorist attacks, providing a comprehensive guide (downloadable here) to increase security.

SHIELD Handbook
SHIELD Handbook

During the two years of the project, SHIELD has hosted a number of dialogue meetings with the aim of countering religious extremism, with the co-participation of state security forces, society and security technology companies. The final recipients of the results of the SHIELD project, the representatives of religious communities, have played a decisive role in providing advice and suggestions based on cultural reflection when talking about the physical security of infrastructures, aspects such as the environment, culture, social inclusion and inter-religious dialogue are underlined.

José Mª Riera, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, participating in the final SHIELD conference.
José Mª Riera, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, participating in the final SHIELD conference.

At the final conference it became clear that synagogues, churches and mosques are of vital importance for social coexistence and cohesion in the European Union. However, they have been and can become targets of potential terrorist attacks, as witnessed in the last decade. For those involved in SHIELD, it is necessary to create a cultural shield that defends individuals and religious communities, but it is also necessary to create opportunities to work and take part in projects that facilitate encounter and knowledge sharing. The establishment of projects such as SHIELD between diverse faith identities promotes mutual understanding and increases respect, a synergy that culminates in the development of a common strategy for the reduction of threats and the enhancement of religious freedom.

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EN Shield News Projects

SHIELD project virtual training on the protection of places of worship

The EU-funded SHIELD project is holding a virtual training on 17 May on the protection of places of worship for representatives of Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities.
The project aims at the interfaith protection of places of worship against possible terrorist attacks. This practical course taught in English will be held online behind closed doors with the project partners and attendees and will last five hours (10:00 – 15:00 CET).

This training session will involve law enforcement, security and risk detection experts and religious organizations. The objective is to train religious leaders in security and teach them how to quickly report suspicious behavior to the relevant authorities, as well as to sensitize their respective communities to the risk of a terrorist attack.

All participants will be trained on security measures, communication, cooperation and prevention. During the session, three specialized workshops will be implemented about each religious community, in order to prepare the different actors to face a possible attack taking into account their specific needs, in order to be able to adopt customized methodological, technological and procedural solutions.

SHIELD is financed by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union and is is comprised of 19 members from 10 countries (Austria, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Poland and Portugal), including the Euro-Arab Foundation. The project is coordinated by the partner SYNYO GmbH from Austria.

You can find more information about SHIELD on its official website (https://shieldproject.eu)

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EN Shield News

First work sessions of the Shield project

On January 25 and 26, 2022, the Kick-Off meeting of the European project SHIELD, is held with representatives of the 19 European organizations, including the Euro-Arab Foundation, which form the consortium. This first meeting, held in virtual format, marks the beginning of this new project funded by the European Commission under the Internal Security Fund.

The SHIELD project aims to protect Christian, Jewish and Muslim places of worship from terrorist attacks in 11 countries of the European Union. To this end, SHIELD aims to enhance cooperation between public and private actors, raise awareness of the danger of terrorism, and develop new or upgrade methodologies and solutions to protect places of worship and mitigate the effects of attacks. To this end, the SHIELD consortium includes EU public and private actors – Christian, Jewish and Muslim organisations, security practitioners, LEAs, municipalities, experts in risk detection and technological partners. In this way, both the capacity of the Member States and the European Union itself will be improved in the management of risks related to terrorism, the protection of people and buildings.c

SHIELD will identify the critical points in places of worship of each of the three religions, the circumstances and rituals (Sunday Mass, Shabbat, Jumuʿa) that are most subject to the risk of terrorist attacks, the religious buildings that are potentially most vulnerable, as well as the types terrorist attack that would be more likely to survive. SHIELD will outline tailored recommendations and guidelines focused on prevention and the implementation of common protocols to mitigate the impact of attacks. SHIELD will produce and distribute factsheets and leaflets to religious leaders who will actively spread them and raise awareness on terrorist threat among respective communities.

On first day, partners will introduce the project overview and background, as well as the 5 work packages: WP1: Management and Coordination of the Action; WP2: Analysis of critical points, activities and risks; WP3: Identification of security measures; WP4: Simulation of security measures; WP5: Dissemination and communication. On second day, work sessions will be held in which the partners will discuss the organization of their work packages and plan the upcoming tasks and next steps as well as establish needed inputs from other WPs and expected outputs for other WPs.

SHIELD has a consortium made up of 19 institutions and organizations from 11 European countries:

Project Coordinator:

SYNYO GmbH – Austria

Partners:

Zanasi Alessandro SRL – Italy
Fundacja Obserwatorium Spoleczne – Poland
Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios – Spain
Institul intercultural Timisoara – Romania
TECOMS SRL – Italy
Spin System ASBL – Belgium
Hochschule fur den offentlichen dienst in Bayern – Germany
Municipio do Barreiro – Portugal
Europe Islamic Association – Italy
ISGAP Europe – Italy
European Organisation for Security – Belgium
Polskie Towarzystwo Oceny Technologii – Poland
Italpol Vigilanza SRL – Italy
Centro Internazionale di Ricerca Sistemica – Italy
Fondazione Amici della Cattedrale – Italy
ASSOCIATION O.R.T. – France
Glavna Direktsia Natsionalna Politsia – Bulgaria
Orszagos Rabbikepzo Zsido Egyetem – Hungary