With God’s assistance and success, the Council of European Muslims convened its twelfth session of general conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, from January 25–28. Several guest speakers and participants attended, as well as representatives from member organisations from across the European continent. A public symposium titled “The Implications of the Middle East on Europe – The Role of European Muslims” was held during the conference, and a large number of representatives from the political, legal, and civil society sectors attended.
The literary and financial reports were discussed during the conference sessions. Attendees at the conference also discussed issues that Muslims in Europe and beyond are concerned about, particularly the effects of the Gaza War on European Muslims and their institutions.
Following these discussions, the General Conference:
- Recommends European Muslims to uphold the principles of Islam in their interactions with all people and to continue playing their civilised role in establishing societal peace and security in the European arena. It further highlights the civilised role that European Muslims have played in their societies over the past few decades in the same context.
- Calls on European Muslims to strengthen their Islamic religious and European national affiliation and to pass this affiliation on to new generations.
- Urges European Muslims to keep up their efforts to be receptive to different facets of society and to work together with them in a way that serves the interests of society as a whole. In keeping with their religious identity, it also exhorts them to become more deeply engaged in the social, cultural, and legal life of their European societies.
- Highlights the importance of European Muslims’ right to active citizenship and positive participation in the European Parliament elections.
- Expresses profound concern about the rise in racist acts and attacks on people’s rights and freedoms and total rejection to the ongoing violations of people’s rights to free speech and peaceful assembly that have occurred in certain European nations, especially following Gaza’s events.
- Demands that the international community, in general, and the European Union in particular step up efforts to put an immediate stop to the systematic destruction of all life-supporting infrastructure in Gaza and the targeting of civilians there. In this regard, it values the pro-Palestine stances and initiatives taken by a few European nations to protect Palestinian rights.
- Praises the great role played by the State of South Africa in defending Palestinian rights and demanding an end to the ongoing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Under the same circumstances, it acknowledges the ruling rendered on January 26, 2024, by the International Court of Justice, which affirmed its approval to examine the genocide lawsuit filed by the State of South Africa against the Israeli occupation and its right to request immediate action to put an end to Israel’s violations of the Genocide Convention.
- Implores European Muslims to give the besieged Palestinians in Gaza any kind of humanitarian assistance, within the bounds of what European law permits. Additionally, it exhorts them to strengthen their sense of moral, religious, and humanitarian duty to them and to work in concert with human rights organisations to coordinate relief and humanitarian efforts and to end the injustice, starvation, and siege that they are subjected to.
- Calls on its member organisations in particular and European Muslims in general to work to guide Muslim youth in Europe and educate them in how to properly deal with the just causes on the basis of their religious affiliation and within the bounds of what European law permits.
- Highlights the importance of protecting Islamic organisations in Europe and resisting efforts to weaken and misrepresent them.
- Calls on the European Union in particular and the international community in general to make further efforts to end wars and crises that threaten stability, claims victims’ lives, and cause devastation and destruction, most notably the Russian-Ukrainian war, the war in Sudan, and the ongoing persecution and abuse of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
General Conference of the Council of European Muslims
Istanbul, Türkiye, Sunday 28th January 2024