European Muslim Brotherhood Youth Group Praises Belgian Decision To Allow Religious Clothing In Higher Education

The Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO) has issued a state­ment prais­ing a deci­sion to allow reli­gious cloth­ing in High­er Edu­ca­tion in the Wal­lo­nia-Brus­sels region. Accord­ing to the FEMYSO state­ment:

Jan­u­ary 18, 2020 With the con­tin­u­ous efforts and com­mit­ments of grass­roots young Mus­lim activists in Bel­gium, a his­tor­i­cal deci­sion has been tak­en: from Sep­tem­ber 2021 onwards, reli­gious sym­bols in high­er edu­ca­tion are autho­rised by the edu­ca­tion­al author­i­ty of Wal­lo­nia-Brus­sels. This his­tor­i­cal devel­op­ment could not have come with­out young women advo­cat­ing for their rights, and with­out a reminder of the fun­da­men­tal val­ues that we stand for in Europe. FEMYSO con­grat­u­lates the #Hijab­is­Fight­Back activists, CCIB (Col­lec­tive against Islam­o­pho­bia in Bel­gium), la 5e vague and le Col­lec­tif les 100 diplômées: grass­roots NGOs and move­ments who worked tire­less­ly to make edu­ca­tion acces­si­ble for all. FEMYSO also con­grat­u­lates the author­i­ties who made a wise deci­sion to ensure stu­dents their full free­dom in what they want to wear at high­er education.

Read the rest here.

In July 2020, FEMYSO pub­lished a “#Dont­Touch­MyS­tud­ies“ cam­paign video accus­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court of Bel­gium of “human rights abus­es” for uphold­ing a 1994 ban on wear­ing reli­gious sym­bols in offi­cial High­er Edu­ca­tion institutions.

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed in Novem­ber 2020 that Kau­thar Bouchal­likht, the for­mer FEMYSO Vice-Chair­man and a can­di­date for the March 2021 Dutch par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, is like­ly the daugh­ter of one of the most impor­tant lead­ers of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in the Nether­lands. Oth­er GIOR report­ing on FEMYSO  has included:

• In Octo­ber 2020, the GIOR report­ed that FEMYSO’s Pres­i­dent par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al meet­ing attend­ed by many key orga­ni­za­tions of the Glob­al Mus­lim Brotherhood.

• In Octo­ber 2020, the GIOR report­ed on FEMYSO’s ties to the Col­lec­tive Against Islam­o­pho­bia in France (CCIF), which was iden­ti­fied as an Islamist influ­ence operation.

• In Octo­ber 2020, the GIOR report­ed that FEMYSO was among a group of civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions with links to the Euro­pean Mus­lim Broth­er­hood call­ing for the adop­tion of anti-racist leg­is­la­tion mit­i­gat­ing the impact of Covid-19 on Mus­lim communities.

• In Novem­ber 2020, the GIOR report­ed that FEMYSO host­ed an anti-Islam­o­pho­bia event with sev­er­al top EU officials.

• In Novem­ber 2020, the GIOR report­ed that FEMYSO was among a group of Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions accus­ing the French pres­i­dent of a “uni­lat­er­al assault on Mus­lims, Islam, and the Prophet Muhammad.”

FEMYSO is the youth/student arm of the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, known to rep­re­sent the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Europe. One of the impor­tant lead­ers of FEMYSO over the years has been Ger­man Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Ibrahim El-Zay­at. In recent times, its lead­er­ship has been drawn from the fam­i­ly of impor­tant Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lead­ers. Almost all of the FEMYSO mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions are also tied to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Europe. Over the years, FEMYSO has devel­oped rela­tion­ships with the Coun­cil of Europe, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, and many oth­er sig­nif­i­cant orga­ni­za­tions at the Euro­pean and inter­na­tion­al level.