Promoting mutual understanding and respect for diversity, along with countering all forms of intolerance and discrimination, must today, more than ever, be absolute priorities for the international community, in order to maintain peace and stability at both the global and regional levels. The attitudes and tensions that lead to inter-communal conflict are often deeply rooted in stereotypes and misconceptions, and one of the most pressing contemporary challenges is to promote knowledge about, and understanding of, different cultures. Educators play a fundamental role in meeting this challenge. Recognising this, the international community has repeatedly made commitments to counter intolerance and discrimination that stress the role of education. The 1969 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination calls for states to develop and put into practice effective measures in the field of education to combat prejudices that lead to racial discrimination and to promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among nations and ethnic groups.

The 1974 UNESCO Recommendation Concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms emphasises the crucial role of education in promoting a culture of peace and human rights. The 2005 Ljubljana Decision of the OSCE Ministerial Council encourages public and private educational programmes that promote tolerance and non-discrimination and, through education, raise public awareness of the existence and the unacceptability of intolerance and discrimination. The “White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue” launched by the Council of Europe in 2008 suggests that a widely shared effort in managing cultural diversity is needed and stresses the importance of the learning and teaching of intercultural competence. The 2010 Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education encourages Member States to promote educational approaches aimed at combating all forms of discrimination and violence.

In line with these instruments, the specific need to counter intolerance and discrimination against Muslims has been recognized by the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the UNESCO. To help states ensure that these commitments are given meaningful effect, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and UNESCO have worked together to develop these guidelines for educators to counter intolerance and discrimination against Muslims. These guidelines aim to assist educators in identifying manifestations of intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in schools and to provide suggestions on how to prevent and respond to this phenomenon. We hope that the guidelines will be widely used in curriculum planning and development, and in pre-service and in-service training of teachers.