Letter to European Parliament President David Sassoli

Brussels, 15 October 2021

Dear President David Sassoli,  

 

On behalf of the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), a pan-European network representing the voice of the Muslim Youth in Europe, we had the pleasure to participate at the European Youth Event (EYE) 2021, the biggest event for thousands of various young people at a European level. Please read our letter below about our recent experiences, especially ahead of the European Year of Youth 2022, as presented by President Von Der Leyen. 

 

As FEMYSO, we were proud for having been provided and having made us of this great opportunity to participate in a democratic process facilitated by the European Parliament to engage young people more closely with the most democratic and representative institution of the European Union. We participated before in 2016, 2018 but for the first time this year we participated by bringing Muslim youth from more than 14 European countries, by delivering two workshops (education and policymaking) and moderated one panel (fighting discrimination) which also had an MEP as a speaker. Before coming to the EYE, we prepared our participants closely through three webinars on what the European Parliament is, what the EYE consists of and what topics they can expect and can prepare for. Indeed, we even had a “green delegation” as part of our wider FEMYSO delegation, which consisted of participants who completed a European Youth Foundation funded international training on climate justice. These participants prepared with concrete ideas and proposals to make Europe greener, knowing that some ideas would be selected for the EYE report and would contribute to the Conference on the Future of Europe. 

 

We are really happy with the five suggested outcomes from the closing plenary, and we are committed to these proposals as an organisation. We also look forward to seeing them developed throughout the Conference on the Future of Europe. As FEMYSO, it is in fact our vision to strive to build a more diverse, cohesive, and vibrant Europe for all. We do this through our campaigns, training, representation and networking activities. 

 

Unfortunately, the experience of our passionate young people, who came to this event to proactively contribute to the process of bettering our European Union, was negatively impacted as they were targeted by a far-right youth delegation. In different occasions, members of our delegation were specifically targeted and subjected to Islamophobic and Anti-Muslim hate speech at the very heart of the European Parliament. Our workshops were disturbed and the panel we moderated got hindered in the end by racist slurs shouted through the microphones. The far-right youth delegation kept furthering their Islamophobic and xenophobic agenda through a multitude of actions, from verbal abuse to online hate speech. For instance, they also uploaded on social media pictures of our participants (without their consent) and used the hashtag #stopimmigration. These are the actions that we know of, and there might be others that we have not been made aware. Please refer to our statement here. 

 

It is noteworthy that not only Muslim participants were targeted by members of the far-right, specifically of the Identity and Democracy Group (ID) of the European Parliament. Also, members of other minority groups who participated and organised activities at the EYE, such as DiasporaVote and Jesuit Refugee Service, were subjected to verbal harassment, both in person and online, by the same people. The members of the other minority groups shared their experiences with us, only after our Vice President shared our experience in the closing ceremony and after we reached out online for victims of hate speech at EYE2021 to contact us. We highly encourage you to watch this short speech that FEMYSO’s Vice President delivered at the closing ceremony here. 

 

As marginalised young people living in Europe, we are firm believers of active citizenship. We came to this event to effectively contribute by sharing our ideas and listening to the perspectives of youth from all over our Europe. We debated our ideas around climate justice, the role of AI in media literacy, gender equality mainstreaming and of specific ways to fight discrimination. Unfortunately, the disgraceful Islamophobia and racism we were subjected to made us feel unsafe and it ostracised our intent to be active citizens. It is even more disgraceful that some MEPs further encouraged the youths who targeted us, by adding their own hate speech. 

 

What happened during the EYE 2021 – which ought to be a safe space – clearly stands in contradiction with the core values of the European Union of democracy, rule of law, solidarity, equality, and respect for human rights; all of which should be defended. The European Parliament is the heart of our democracy and we expect its leadership to take concrete and effective steps to fight all forms of racism, as well as to call out the unacceptable hate speech and verbal abuse which was subjected to many participants during the EYE. 

 

Addressing Islamophobia and xenophobia is a pivotal part of increasing the trust and confidence of European Muslims, and other minorities, in their national and European institutions. We therefore request a meeting to be organised in order to discuss in depth your commitment and proposals to bring concrete measures to limit Islamophobia, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination that minorities are facing in Europe. One possible idea is to have a Parliamentary Charter against hate speech. We are looking forward to discussing feasible and constructive solutions which may put an end to hate speech and racism.  

 

While looking forward to your prompt response, we take this opportunity to convey our best regards, 

 

Abdelrahman Rizk 

FEMYSO President 

 

Signatories of support to this letter: 

  • Agora Association 
  • Asociación Musulmana por los Derechos Humanos – AMDEH 
  • Beylikduzu Youth Club 
  • Centre for Peace Studies 
  • DemSport 
  • #DiasporaVote! 
  • Dimbaya APS 
  • Eine Welt Netz NRW 
  • Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice 
  • Erasmus Student Network Austria 
  • Erasmus Student Network Lisboa 
  • Erasmus Student Network Portugal 
  • Erasmus Student Network Strasbourg 
  • Euro Youth Mental Health 
  • European Youth Forum – YFJ 
  • European Forum of Muslim Women – EFOMW 
  • European Network against Racism – ENAR 
  • European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network – ERGO Network 
  • Geoclube (Portugal) 
  • Human Rights Association (Georgia) 
  • No Hate Speech Movement Italia 
  • No Hate Speech Network 
  • OpenGlobe 
  • PEBS/ JEF MV 
  • Regional Roma Educational Youth Association-RROMA 
  • The Czech Helsinki Committee 
  • Union of Justice 
  • Voice of the Youth Foundation: St. Maarten Youth Brigade 
  • You(th)+ 
  • Young European Federalists – JEF 
  • Youth Center “Perspektiva”
  • Youth group of the Eine Welt Netz NRW e.V.