Category: Statements

The 11th of July marks the largest massacre to take place on European soil post World War II. A genocide in 1995 claimed the lives of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. This massacre was part of a wider genocidal campaign carried out  during the Bosnian war.

This event shows Islamophobia manifested to its natural conclusion. The ambition of the Serbian Military was to “wipe out” Bosnian Muslims, this justified their inhumane and callous acts of evil.

Today, we stand 25 years on, still trying to educate the international community about Srebrenica, to make sure that violence inspired by such hatred does not take place in Europe ever again.

Sign the online petition to Stop and Legally Ban the Denial of the Srebrenica Genocide.

https://www.change.org/p/office-of-the-high-representative-peticija-prema-visokom-predstavniku-valentinu-inzku-za-dono%C5%A1enje-zakona-o-zabrani-negirana

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FEMYSO will always #RememberSrebrenica

On 4 June 2020, with the arrêt 81/2020, the Constitutional Court of Belgium has concluded that the Article 3 of the Decree of the French Community of 31 March 1994 on the “neutrality of education” does not violate the Belgian Constitution nor the European Convention of Human Rights, which guarantees the freedom of religion.

The Court has thus validated the decision of the educational institute Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer in Brussels to ban students from wearing religious symbols. The institute’s appeal to the establishment of a “totally neutral environment” has in reality resulted in the disregard of gender equality and human dignity as well as in an instance of indirect discrimination as defined in the Employment Equality Directive.

Indirect discrimination – where an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice would put a given person at a particular disadvantage compared to others. This concerns measures which may look neutral and unproblematic at first sight but nevertheless have a discriminatory effect on a particular group of people.

Education is a key factor to employment and in a time where societal polarization is increasing at a frightening rate and instances of anti-Muslim bigotry have become the norm, supporting exclusive policies such as the one adopted by the Haute Ecole cannot but be seen as a multiplier of societal discriminations and a hindering factor to women’s access to the job market.

The rights of women all over Europe, and especially the rights of Muslim women to education, is also at risk. Women that want to have the freedom to express their identity and to have the right not to uncover their bodies in order to access education are obliged by segregating policies like the Haute Ecole’s one to choose between their integrity on one hand and their education on the other.

Access to education represents one of the key doorsteps to becoming a productive member of society. Preventing women from education means preventing them from their right to work and independence. The decision of the Constitutional Court risks creating a legal precedent for other higher education institutes to justify the exclusion of Muslim women from education.

FEMYSO is thus deeply concerned over the far-reaching consequences of this decision and the negative effects that this will have vis à vis the idea of a diverse and inclusive society.

We the undersigned call upon the Belgian government and community leaders to make a decisive step in addressing this issue. We urge student leaders to continue to protest and protect the values of self-determination and personal expression. We the undersigned will continue to advocate for a Europe that protects the rights of women and Muslim youth, and ensures unrestricted educational access to all.

Forum of European Muslim Youth and Students Organisations

World Student Christian Federation, Europe Region

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of the resolution titled ‘The Anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd’ on Friday 19 June 2020.

We look forward to seeing the proposals put forward in the motion accepted and implemented by EU institutions and Member States. We hope this initial action is part of a wider movement for change, we also hope that relevant leaders across EU Institutions engage directly with civil society organisations and communities affected by discrimination. This must be done in order to address systemic racism which remains a stain on our region.

We commend the hard work of the European Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) and its MEP co-chairs for their hard work in pushing for this resolution, and we will continue to work closely with them to fight all forms of discrimination. 

FEMYSO stands with communities and organisations fighting for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human dignity. We will continue to work for a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

#BlackLivesMatter 

[ENDS] 

Notes

1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

2. European Parliament resolution on The Anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2020-0173_EN.html

3. For more information please email media@femyso.org

We at the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) are appalled at the insensible killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and the concerning developments that have followed. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to all of those affected by the plague of anti-Black violence. We would also like to express our solidarity with black communities and anti-racist activists across the globe who are tirelessly fighting for justice and equality. 

Systematic racism and anti-Blackness is a disease that we are all too familiar with in Europe and as European citizens, we must step-up our fight to eradicate it from our societies and across the globe. To be able to bring about meaningful and lasting change, it is vital that we educate ourselves and the communities we belong to on the issue of racism, colourism and anti-Blackness, and the different ways in which it manifests in society. This requires a level of introspection amongst ourselves, our communities, and the organisations and institutions that represent us – we must address these issues starting with our homes, classrooms and places of work.

Our values underpin every aspect of our work. To truly be a diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe we must ensure that we advocate for the civil liberties and rights for communities that continue to battle racial discrimination. This is why it is extremely important our solidarity expands beyond our words for black communities across the globe. We will continue to push for change within structures and adoption of policy that actively challenges the systemic exclusion and oppression of black communities in society – centering and providing space for their voices in the discussion. 

The anti-Black racism and police brutality linked to this must not be seen as an issue that does not affect Europe. In 2018, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published the report Being Black in the EU, in this study 31% of the respondents mentioned that they had experienced racial harassment, with 1 in 10 of the respondents who were victims of racist violence mentioning that it was perpetrated by members of law enforcement. 

We call upon the European Commission to institutionalise the resolution on fundamental rights of people of African descent in Europe passed by the European Parliament in 2019. In the resolution, the European Parliament recognises that “Afrophobia”, “Afri-phobia” and “anti-black racism” is a specific form of racism, including any act of violence or discrimination, fueled by historical abuses and negative stereotyping, and leading to the exclusion and dehumanisation of People of African Descent. We urge members of the European Parliament to demand for its implementation and continue to ensure that the issue of racism and prejudice is at the forefront of discussions and agenda points. 

FEMYSO stands with communities and organisations fighting for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human dignity. We will continue to work for a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

#BlackLivesMatter

Today, on the 22nd April FEMYSO joins the global community in observing Earth Day.

As an organisation sustainability and looking after our earth has remained a priority campaign. With this being the 50th edition of Earth Day we call upon all global citizens to reflect upon their own impact on our planet. 

Earth day is not only a day, it is a movement which aims to raise awareness around environmental issues that strongly impact communities across the globe. What must not be forgotten is that the biggest victims of climate change are not those in the developed world, but those in fragile climates where extreme weather as a result of human impact like that of drought has caused untold damage.

“Nature is our first source of life, first source of care and the first source of education. Humans are the only living beings on earth that have the freedom to choose to consciously destroy it. Disconnect yourself from nature, and you’ll disconnect yourself from your humanity, it is written in our scriptures that we have to protect what maintains us in life, therefore taking care of the earth is literally taking care of yourself” FEMYSO Green-Up Campaign Lead, Florence Pouilly 

Young people across the globe when asked about political priorities mention climate change on every single occasion, therefore we call upon policy-makers and decision-takers to the concerns of youth seriously in this regard, not only acting upon their asks but empowering them to lead in the protection of their own futures. 

As FEMYSO, we hope years from now the leaders of this organisation look back and applaud the significant steps taken by individuals and governments to save our planet – there simply is no other option.  

On the 21st of March, we mark the importance of this date, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Today FEMYSO invites you all to reflect and learn from the past, working together for the present, in order to build a more equal world for our common futures.

Racial discrimination takes many forms and cannot be seen solely through the lens of the individual – an area of key work to eradicate discrimination from are the institutions that are there to represent all of us. From a lack of representation due to unconscious bias to draconian laws implemented by states in order to prevent individuals from being able to exert their religious identities. The time for talk is over, we must see action taken to deal with these endemic issues.

We at FEMYSO will continue our efforts on advocating against all forms of hate crimes, racism and discrimination, and push for more effective policies that reflect the seriousness of the matter. We will continue to work for a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

It is with deepest sadness that we at FEMYSO commemorate the Christchurch attacks which took place on the 15th of March 2019. We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and to the Christchurch community.

On a day that started like any other for the people of Christchurch, worshippers were attending their customary Friday prayer. However, the day took a turn when an extreme far right individual decided to enter places of worship and unleash a barrage of bullets which took the lives of 51 innocents and destroyed the lives of many more.

 The events of that day in Christchurch should have been a wake-up call that the normalisation of Islamophobia had to end. However, instead of supporting and engaging with Muslim communities many have chosen to stoke the fires of this cancer. Through this, we have seen further attacks on faith communities, from the Hanau attack in February 2020 to the Halle synagogue attack in October 2019 and the highly distressing San Diego synagogue attacks in April 2019.

Unfortunately, learning from the past has been a difficult task for humanity. This can be seen in the continuation of the demonization of Muslims and Islam. Only when public hate speeches are not condemned and states remainactive in securitising Islam and Muslims will extremists gain confidence in plotting and committing terror acts. 

No group of people should be actively stigmatised, ripped of their freedoms put under state surveillance for the mere fact that they belong to a certain group. This is an unfortunate reality in the majority of our own European Union Member States and other countries around the globe. We need state institutions to proactively listen to our voices and review their policies for our mutual benefit and of course civil society must play an important part in this. 

We pray we never see attacks similar to the ones in Christchurch 2019. May we never forget March 15th, and may this be a day for reflecting about the horrible consequences of Islamophobia.

FEMYSO stands with communities and organisations fighting for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human dignity for all. We will continue to work for a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) strongly condemns the violent and inhumane treatment of refugees at the Greek border. Refugees are beaten at European Union (EU) borders and refugee boats are specifically targeted and attacked in EU seas. 

 

While Greece is one of the most outer borders of the EU, it is not a shield against the recent influx of refugees fleeing from war. Europe is not at war with vulnerable people in need of protection, who are in a deteriorating mental and physical health situation. Instead of perpetuating rhetoric and measures which only bolsters the humanitarian disaster at the Greek border, we believe EU solidarity should be enforced with Greece to ensure immediate and real respect for human rights.

 

We call upon the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to condemn and take action against the human violations happening at the borders of Greece. We also call upon the EU Council President Charles Michel to invoke the EU Temporary Protection Directive. Refugees and asylum seekers must be evacuated from the islands and relocated to safe areas in the EU. Attempts at stability in Europe cannot go at the cost of human lives.

 

FEMYSO will continue to stand for fundamental and human rights and work for a diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.

 

[END]

Notes

1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.
2. For more information please email media@femyso.org