Help the People of the Balkans Now

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) calls for immediate support to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Eastern Croatia that have been suffering from the biggest natural catastrophe in a century. 

 

For the past week, floods caused by the torrential rains in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, resulting in significant human and material damage in the affected areas, including 43 people killed. 

 

Over a million people have been affected and thousands have had to leave their homes. According to the Bosnian government, a million Bosnians have been cut off from clean water and 100,000 buildings destroyed. In the Republic of Serbia, 24,352 people were evacuated and 2,260 damaged. Floodwaters triggered more than 3,000 landslides across the Balkans, damaging entire towns and villages and disturbing land mines leftover from the region’s 1990s war. 

 

The populations of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia now face the threat of the spread of infectious  

diseases and a clean-up effort that will cost billions of euros. 

 

In the name of FEMYSO’s Member Organisations from the region, FEMYSO encourages you to act in solidarity with the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. People must be provided with basic goods, and many organizations are working on the ground and need urgent help. 

 

You can help in several ways, by providing either a financial support or donating goods directly. Our member organization, AKOS, is hosting displaced people in its center, Misbah and are delivering food directly to people in need, together with government organisations: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.778104362222070.1073741851.222626677769844&type=1 

  

You can help them to reach more affected people by donating money to: 

  

Transakcijski račun: 1410010001749560 

Bosna Bank International dd Sarajevo 

Devizni račun:1413065310095117 

SWIFT Code : BBIBBA22 

IBAN:BA391410010001749560 

http://www.akos.ba/o-akos-u/donacije 

FEMYSO congratulates President-Elect Abderrahmane Mouhaddab and the new New GMI Executive Board on their election held on the 31st December

As part of the 2012 GMI conference held several days ago in Lignano Sabbiadoro, bi-annual elections were held to elect the presidency and the Executive Board of Giovani Musulmani d’Italia (GMI). GMI is a non-profit association, born from young muslims and aimed at similar youth, to aid in forming their religious and social identities (www.giovanimusulmani.it). 

  

The GMI General Assembly elected Abderrahmane Mouhaddab as President for the 2013-2015 term. Abderrahmane, a 24 year-old Law student and member of the outgoing Executive Board is known for his diligent work and positive engagement within the association both at regional and national level. The Assembly approved his plans to continue strengthening GMI through more specific trainings opportunities that enable young people to participate positively in the development of their society in Italy and Europe through reform ensuring a greater decentralization within the organisation. 

  

Since GMI’s entry into FEMYSO as an MO*1, it has played a significant role in contributing to the aims of FEMYSO,  by showcasing their members’ full potential within European society and ensuring their contributions to the development of a diverse, cohesive and prosperous Europe.  

 

FEMYSO looks forward to working with the newly elected Executive Board and helping them achieve these aims throughout Italy. We are confident our relationship with GMI will continue positively towards a more active cooperation. We deeply commend the commitment and aims taken by the newly elected Board. 

  

FEMYSO would also like to pay tribute to the outgoing President Omar Jibril and his colleagues in the outgoing Executive Board for the great work that has been done over the past four years. The commitment and the hard work of Omar Jibril and the former Executive Board has been exemplary and we hope it will be a solid foundation in which the new Executive Board will serve Italian Muslim youth and wider society. 

  

[photo of new board] 

{photo caption: the New Board  Abdelhakim Bouchraa, Abderrahmane Mouhaddab, Bilal Daaou, Hareth Amar, Karim El Sayed, Mosaab Hamad, Nadia Rouatbi, Samah Emam and Sara Abram} 

 

The newly elected Board represent the plurality within GMI, due to the young age of the members and the diverse body made up of youth that come from all different cities and realities which encompass the whole reality of the Young Muslims in Italy.  

 

We extend our congratulations to the newly elected Executive Board and look forward to working alongside them for a better and more diverse Muslim European Voice. 

 

—- 

 

ENDS 

 

Notes to editors 

 

  1. For further information, please contact our FEMYSO Press officer Ms. Ola Himmat, ola.himmat@femyso.org

 

  1. FEMYSO was founded in 1996 in Sweden at a time when Muslim youth from across Europe felt it was necessary to come together to create a united body, to share ideas and experiences, help  develop each other and make sure Muslim youth’s concerns and views are represented to the European institutions. Since then, FEMYSO has grown into a wide network of 33 student and youth organisations throughout Europe, all working to benefit their communities and societies, and serve mankind. The FEMYSO vision for European Muslim youth is proactivity, ethical living and service to humanity. We have trained thousands of young Muslims, contributed to the emergence of a strong confident identity of young European Muslims, and built strong partnerships with organisations across society, Muslim and non-Muslim, all  motivated by a commitment to live by our principles and build a better future. 

 

Follow FEMYSO on twitter: @femyso; if you were forwarded this release, sign up to join our mailing list  via www.femyso.org 

FEMYSO Honours Victims of Srebrenica Genocide

Srebrenica – NEVER FORGET

 

Today, July 11th 2012, we remember the 17th anniversary of the gruesome Massacre in Srebrenica, the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims by the Bosnian-Serbs army. 

 

It was a crime beyond any scale Europe has ever witnessed in the last decade. A crime that crushed humanity out of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The terrible events that occurred in Srebrenica are one of the most horrific and controversial in Europe’s recent history. 

 

On July 11th 1995, Bosnian-Serbs forces overran the UN protected zone, separated children and women from men, and then systematically inhumanely slaughtered and exterminated men in mass executions. Both the International Criminal Court and International Criminal Tribunal have clearly called the cruel crimes committed in Srebrenica as a Genocide, a crime against humanity. 

 

As FEMYSO we remember these horrific days, we honour and pray for the victims and we hope such crimes will never happen again. Let us not forget the suffering of the Victims by standing and watching in silence. Indeed the appalling silence of the good people hurts Victims more than the brutal cruelty perpetrated by the oppressors. 

 

Let us honour the Souls of the defenseless Victims by stepping up and let us speak out against the inhuman injustice that has occurred. 

Let us honour the Souls of the defenseless Victims by reciting the verses of surat Al-Fatiha.  

 

Srebrenica, never again! 

ENAR Director receives anonymous death threat 

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) is shocked and appalled at the news that Michaël Privot, Director of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), received a death threat following his participation in a live web-chat on freedom of expression, organised by Belgian weekly magazine Le Vif/L’Express on 28 Februrary 2012. 

 

Sadly this is not just an ‘isolated incident’, but only one despicable instance in a consistent pattern of violence directed at representatives of ENAR member organisations in several countries, not to mention numerous ordinary individuals across Europe who face xenophobic and racist violence and abuse on a daily basis. 

 

This worrying proliferation of online manifestations of hatred and intolerance against migrants and ethnic and religious minorities in Europe, as well as the European inaction threaten peace and prosperity in Europe. We call on all European states and institutions to address online hate crime and to ensure that effective legal recourse and support are provided to victims of Islamophobia and racial and religious hate crime to tackle this growing problem.