In the Netherlands and elsewhere, it has become a default expectation in recent years that certain communities, and Muslims in particular, apologize for and formally distance themselves from matters that occur in other parts of the world - especially acts of terrorism.

The consequence is that certain groups and individuals are constantly associated with terrible evens they have nothing to do with. This mechanism – also known as “guilt by association” or the imposition of “collective guilt” – has become normalized. Rather than bringing people together, it causes segregation.

The idea was sparked to use a short educational film that reveals how children handle these kinds of accusations, prejudices and suspicions. What happens is that their self-esteem, self-image and confidence is damaged. You see, for example, how rapidly a young boy who wants to become a superhero can be talked into seeing himself as a villain.

Filmmaker Abdelkarim El-Fassi, who produced the video, explains: “I’ve never felt this uncomfortable while directing a video. Sure, it’s totally unethical and pedagogically irresponsible, and yet as a society we’ve practiced this on the macro-level for years. We’ve been talking certain communities into feelings of collective guilt for years. This has to stop, otherwise the problem will fester on for generations to come. I don’t want my nephew Hamza, who can be seen in the film, to be held accountable for matters that have nothing to do with him. He is a third generation Dutch-Moroccan. There is no justification whatsoever for him being treated differently from his white peers.”