Centre for Civic Education (CCE), marking 15 March – the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, highlights the importance of actively safeguarding interreligious and interethnic harmony and trust in Montenegro. Although the Constitution and laws prohibit discrimination on any grounds, everyday practice shows that a stronger and more systemic response to discrimination and hate speech is needed across all segments of society.
Findings from CCE’s public opinion survey on citizens’ attitudes towards multiculturalism in Montenegro indicate worrying trends in perceptions and social distance. As many as 49.1% of respondents believe that discrimination based on religious affiliation is present in Montenegro, while 59.7% recognise discrimination on national grounds. The data also show an increase in the perception of discrimination against numerically smaller communities across all analysed areas compared to 2023. At the same time, although 76.8% of citizens see Montenegro as a multicultural society, personal attitudes reveal significant social distance. Thus, 52.3% of respondents stated that they would not marry a person from another ethnic group, while 56.4% would not marry a person of a different religion. This gap between the declarative acceptance of multiculturalism and actual attitudes towards “others” creates space for the normalisation of stereotypes and intolerance.
An additional dimension of the problem is confirmed by CCE’s analysis of the media presence of hate speech targeting numerically smaller ethnic communities, conducted between September and November 2025, which covered 1,217 media articles and 12,969 comments across seven online portals in Montenegro. The findings indicate that 22% of the analysed articles were accompanied by hate speech in the comments, while 13% of the total number of comments contained elements of hate speech, including targeting on the basis of national and religious affiliation. Hate speech most often manifests itself through insults, dehumanisation and collective stigmatisation, whereby numerically smaller national and religious communities are frequently portrayed as a security or identity threat. Such narratives shape public opinion, particularly in the online space where polarising content spreads rapidly without an adequate institutional response.
Islamophobia in Montenegro most commonly manifests through stereotypes, stigmatisation, and the association of an entire religious community with security threats, or through emphasising differences in a negative manner. Such generalisations deepen divisions, hinder the inclusion of members of the Islamic community in social life, and increase the risk of discrimination in areas such as employment, education, and political participation. Particular concern arises when isolated incidents escalate into xenophobic outbursts, such as those recorded in the autumn of last year, when tensions in Podgorica escalated following incidents in which Turkish citizens living and working in Montenegro became targets. At that time, verbal attacks, acts of vandalism, and gatherings where xenophobic and Islamophobic narratives were spread were recorded. These cases demonstrate how individual criminal acts can be misused to spread collective intolerance, instead of being addressed institutionally in a way that would prevent discriminatory discourse.
The fight against Islamophobia is not a matter of protecting one community, but a test of the democratic maturity of society. Tolerating hostility toward any religious or national group weakens trust, deepens divisions, and distances Montenegro from the values of a civic society. Therefore, CCE calls on competent institutions to improve mechanisms for preventing and sanctioning hate speech, on the media to consistently apply professional standards, and on political actors to refrain from rhetoric that encourages the spread of ethnic, religious, and social distance.
The International Day to Combat Islamophobia is observed on 15 March, following a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to raise awareness of Islamophobia and promote tolerance. This date was chosen in memory of the 2019 attacks on mosques in New Zealand.
Nikola Đurašević, Programme Associate