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FMO Engage is a new initiative aimed at tackling negative media perceptions of Muslims within the locality of Leicestershire. It also seeks to encourage greater political participation and civic engagement with the wider communities. The project aims to facilitate Muslims with the necessary skills and resources thereby allowing them to play a more active role in society.

 FMO Engage aims to address the following key objectives: 

• To protect and promote the image of Islam and Muslims in Leicestershire
• To raise awareness amongst Muslims in Leicestershire with regards to the importance of political participation
• To build on the level of civic engagement and integration of Muslims in the wider community

There will be three dedicated committees working on the above objectives, i.e. media, political participation and civic engagement. In order for FMO Engage to work effectively, a number of participants are required to support these committees. There will be an active drive to generate interest in the project from the local community for the remainder of 2009 and throughout 2010.

The initiative aims to ENGAGE with the wider community and promote Islam as being a religion based on peace and community relations. We need to let the community know that the views of a few (which is what most are used to seeing in the press) is not the view of the vast majority of Muslims in Leicestershire. We are not all extremists and we are not an insular community who want little or no contact with the society we live in. We want to ENGAGE and we want to learn about other cultures and faiths and we want others to learn about how a Muslim in Leicestershire lives and what he/she believes in and how this is not the same as the perception they may have from associating the words ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ with terrorist and extremist. We need our sisters to promote the reality that Muslim women are liberated and have freedom of choice. It is not the case that Muslim women are oppressed and forced to wear the burkha.

We need to have more civic engagement and we need the views of Muslims in Leicestershire. We need you to register your interest in this project and it is time that you come forward and work with FMO ENGAGE to make a change in Leicestershire. We need volunteers to be there to voice an opinion and be reactive to specific instances of misrepresentation in the press and we also need active team members who can bring a new dimension to the work we are trying to achieve.

Given your support we can increase our interaction with all members of Leicestershire’s society, be it religious, political, or civic and the press. We have to paint for people a true picture of our glorious faith and way of life. We have to give respect to gain respect! And we will together eliminate this negativity surrounding our community.