Prejudice and misconception

This lesson asks you to identify some common prejudices and misconceptions about religions. The museum serves a single part: one United Nations observance that names a prejudice against Muslims. It does not list the misconceptions themselves; your class researches those and the prejudices faced by other traditions. ¹

Naming a prejudice is itself an act with a date, a body and a reason. Read the record and note who named it, when, and what reason is given. Then ask what you would need to research to separate a prejudice from a misconception.

Read how the Day came to be named, as the record of the International Day to Combat Islamophobia gives it. Pakistan's then prime minister, Imran Khan, first suggested an international day against Islamophobia in his address to the General Assembly in September 2020 ². On 15 March 2022 the General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/76/254 by consensus, proclaiming 15 March the International Day to Combat Islamophobia ^{3 2}, in a resolution sponsored by sixty member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation ³. The resolution stresses that terrorism and violent extremism cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilisation or ethnic group, and calls for a global dialogue on a culture of tolerance and peace based on respect for human rights and for the diversity of religions and beliefs ^{3 2}. The record of Canadian Islamic History Month adds that a Government of Canada page presents the 2025 campaign as built around the Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia ⁴. Neither record sets out what the misconceptions are.

The record of the Day rests on two sources: the United Nations' observance page, which gives the resolution, its sponsors and what followed, and an English Wikipedia revision of 24 May 2026, which gives Imran Khan's suggestion in September 2020 and the reason for the date ^{3 2}. The record of the Canadian month rests on one Government of Canada page, which does not name the parliamentary instrument that created it ⁴. Both records report what was proclaimed, published and organised; neither reports what changed as a result, and neither lists the misconceptions.

The record shows a prejudice named by states in a General Assembly resolution ³, but it lists no misconception and gives no study of one. If your class wanted to tell a prejudice, a misconception and a difference of opinion about a religion apart, what kind of evidence would each need, and why would the wording of a resolution not be enough to settle which is which?

• International Day to Combat Islamophobia: how the Day was suggested and adopted, what the resolution says, and what followed.
• Canadian Islamic History Month: what a Government of Canada page says of the month, its campaigns and the Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia.

Read International Day to Combat Islamophobia. Write what the sources say happened, on which date and why that date, and one question your class could ask about a prejudice faced by another tradition.