Leaders of Human Rights Groups with Muslim Brotherhood Ties Participate in Anti-Racism Meeting with Vice-President of European Parliament

On 24 March 2022, lead­ers of two civ­il soci­ety NGOs with ties to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Europe par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al meet­ing with the Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment to dis­cuss the parliament’s role in com­bat­ting racism. Accord­ing to a tweet by Equinox – Ini­tia­tive For Racial Justice:

On Wednes­day, we (@ENAREurope @ERGO_Network) met with Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Vice @papadimoulis to dis­cuss mea­sures to com­bat racism.

Read the rest here.

The par­tic­i­pants also thanked Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Pres­i­dent Rober­ta Met­so­la and Par­lia­ment Vice-Pres­i­dent Dim­itrios Papadi­moulis for their sup­port and “being open to our demands to ensure a tru­ly just Union.” The meeting’s speak­ers includ­ed the cur­rent prin­ci­pal lead­ers of the Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism (ENAR):

• Kim Smouter, the new­ly appoint­ed ENAR Director

• Juliana San­tos Wahlgren, ENAR Act­ing Direc­tor and a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Expert Group on Migra­tion, Inte­gra­tion, Asylum

ENAR is an asso­ci­a­tion of over 150 NGOs describ­ing itself as “the voice of the anti-racist move­ment in Europe” and has met with high-lev­el EU offi­cials, includ­ing the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Coor­di­na­tor on Com­bat­ing Anti-Mus­lim Hatred. For­mer ENAR Direc­tor Michaël Priv­ot, who in 2008 open­ly acknowl­edged that he was a mem­ber of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, has served in lead­ing posi­tions in sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB), includ­ing as a  board mem­ber of the Forum of Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO). The two ENAR Islam­ic mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions, FEMYSO and the Euro­pean Forum Of Mus­lim Women are part of the GMB in Europe. ENAR has long lob­bied for stricter mea­sures against racism at the Euro­pean lev­el and demand­ed that EU anti-ter­ror­ism leg­is­la­tion con­sid­er the impact on groups it believes are at height­ened risk of discrimination.

The 24 March 2022 event also includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Equinox – Ini­tia­tive For Racial Jus­tice, which describes itself as a “peo­ple of colour-led coali­tion work­ing to advance rights and jus­tice for all peo­ple in Europe” and main­ly works in the fields of Cli­mate Jus­tice, Migra­tion, Law Enforce­ment, and Gen­der. It has cam­paigned to abol­ish the Euro­pean bor­der and coast guard agency Fron­tex and main­stream racial equal­i­ty in all EU pol­i­cy. Equinox was co-found­ed in 2021 by Alfi­az Vaiya, a for­mer Euro­pean Forum of Mus­lim Women Advi­so­ry Board mem­ber and for­mer ENAR Senior Advo­ca­cy Offi­cer Sarah Chan­der. The Equinox sup­port­ers con­sor­tium includes the Euro­pean Net­work On Reli­gion And Belief, anoth­er ENAR mem­ber whose Islam­ic mem­ber is the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, an umbrel­la group that com­pris­es the GMB in Europe. Equinox says it is sup­port­ed by the Open Soci­ety Foundations.