TOWARDS COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE: AN OVERVIEW BY : ISLAM AL KHATIB, MAIE PANAGA BABKER In recent years, we have witnessed and experienced the rise of fascist, anti-democratic discourses and strategies in different contexts across political, social, and human rights – online and offline. We observe several groups and actors actively working to form cooperative alliances. They also spread discourses across borders to attack human rights and progressive values. In the face of this continuous threat to our rights and autonomy, Noor was founded in 2022 - to contribute to the organizing power of feminist and progressive movements to challenge these growing forces in the Global South and North, and to aspire to better futures for all. Noor’s knowledge-building team believes that the power of knowledge, when effectively framed politically, can inform our resistance and help confront fascism and fundamentalism. We are also dedicated to amplifying nuanced Global South realities and movement contributions in confronting authoritarianism, fascism, and fundamentalism. We see fascism and fundamentalism not as isolated or fringe ideologies but as comprehensive political projects that have their own economic, social, and geopolitical goals, agendas and structures. These projects infiltrate every fragment of society, reengineering the fabric of everyday life in ways that are both subtle and fundamental; they alter how we live, work, and interact, creating an environment where fear, division, surveillance, and control become normalized. FASCISMS AND FUNDAMENTALISMS ARE DESIGNED TO PERPETUATE THE ILLUSION THAT THEIR DOMINANCE IS INEVITABLE, THAT THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY, AND THAT RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. Yet, as alarming as these trends are, we also recognize that these actors, tactics and narratives do not emerge in a vacuum. They are connected to existing systems of oppression as they are rooted within the fertile 4

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