November 2015, the world was shocked by the attacks in Paris. Among others, the Spanish local AEGEE-León decided to take action and organised a session on the future of Europe and islamophobia, related to the Focus Area of Spreading Europtimism. Seeing that their current President, Marcos Mato Gonzales, is also a member of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee (ACT), it will come as no surprise that many of their events are related to our Action Agenda. We spoke to Laura Perez Alvarez to find out more!

ACT: Congratulations! ​As we would like to get to know this month’s winner, could you tell us a bit more about your local?

Laura: León is a small city, so for us having more than 100 members is a big deal! We organised Renove V (a weekend event for locals of our Network Commissioner with more than 140 participants) in September and right after that we changed our board. We have been trying to focus on organising relevant events. Since our president joined ACT in August he has been helping us to organise better activities that are more related to the Action Agenda. He was the one that came up with the idea for a series of sessions open to AEGEE members and other students about many different hot topics.

​Why did you decide to organise the session on the future of Europe and islamophobia?

There were many reasons. First of all, it was the time right after the terrorist attacks in Paris, because of which we saw that islamophobia was increasing. We have friends who are refugees and they were scared. We decided that we, as AEGEE members, should do something, so we talked to the islamic community here in León and the university. The idea for the sessions, including a speech and debate, just came up.

What was the result of your session?

The session was really interesting and attracted a lot of people: members of AEGEE-León, Erasmus and international students, other students and even two representatives from the muslim community. In total, more than 50 people attended the sessions. There were a lot of different opinions in the audience, which led to a great debate. We had some hungarian people as well and they gave us their point of view about the situation and explained some concepts we didn’t really know about. There was also a more intensive debate about the war in Syria and whether to support it or not. Some people thought that it is the only option and for some others war is never an option.

​Why do you think the Action Agenda is important for the Network, and what would you say to locals that are thinking about organising something related to the Action Agenda?

To locals that want to organise something, we would say: do it! We think AEGEE has a lot to offer and locals have a lot of potential, which is why the Action Agenda is so important for us. The Network needs to have a direction, and to have events that help us grow as an organisation.

Do you have any other big plans for the upcoming months​?

Right now we plan on continuing with more sessions at the university about important topics, like feminism and youth employment, with a speaker from the City Hall. Besides that, we are planning to have a workshop about ACT and the Action Agenda. Besides that, a lot of our members (more than ten) went to the EPM in Leiden, so now we want to host another session explaining the results of the event to the rest of our members.

AEGEE-Leon has certainly shown to the Network that it can be an example to other locals. What would you say to other locals that want to be as awesome as you?

Work hard, play hard. We have very active members that work really hard to improve our antenna, while they also have fun! We have also implemented a mentorship program” to help our newest members know AEGEE better. So, as advice for other locals we would say: it’s important to motivate your members, especially those who seem interested, and help them develop their full potential.

​Which sentence would describe your local and your event?

We, as young europeans, must be informed about the problems in today’s Europe. To spread europtimism, you have to know what Europe means!

Written by Action Agenda Coordination Committee

Did you ever ask yourself who are you, where do you belong, what aim do you have in your life? Sure you did, you had to, because those are the questions that help us develop our personalities. Roads of it are various, and everyone of us chose a different one. However, these days situation is getting interesting and people have need for grouping more and more. Did you notice how these days, when you read the news at least one of them will be talking about Islam, islamophobia, terrorism? That is one of the signs of grouping.

Today Muslims are generally considered as owners of bad civilisation, and Islam  as a religion of hate. Indeed though, we should look at it from other perspectives as well and see that not all is so black and white.

For example, did you know that Muslims around the world represent 23% of all people worldwide. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 of the 232 countries. This makes Islam the world’s second-largest religion. Biggest number of Muslims is concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, where 62% of all Muslims reside. The world’s Muslim population living in Europe makes 3%. Over the past two decades, the number of Muslims living in Western Europe has steadily grown, rising from less than 10 million in 1990 to approximately 17 million in 2010.[1]

As an overture to this problematic let us first meet Djemal and his story.

Djemal, an Algerian Muslim, who resides in Italy, had been for some reasons in the hospital. Djemal shared a room with an Italian man, who was afraid of Muslims telling everyone around to be aware and to take care because -there is a Muslim in the hospital-. The same man actually liked Djemal very much, and found him the kindest person in the hospital. On the day he realized that Djemal is actually The Muslim, the Italian man never spoke to him again. The Italian man was the one of  those who are not dividing men to good and bad, but one of those with prejudice and fears, he was islamophobic. For him it wasn’t important anymore that Djemal was the kindest person in hospital, he is a Muslim, and that is all that mattered.[2]

As far as we can notice, the continuing growth in Europe’s Muslim population is raising lots of political and social questions. A number of question has risen towards issues such as religion in European societies, the role of women, the obligations and rights of immigrants, terrorism.

As I said in the beginning, not everything is black and white. Certainly there have been events of terror and violence from the Muslim side. If we go in the past; the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., a series of events ranging from the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, the murder of the Dutch filmmaker van Gogh in November 2004, followed by the London blasts of July 7, 2005, riots in the French banlieues in November 2005, and then the cartoon crisis in Denmark have caused a profound anxiety about the “Islamic threat” to security and the cultural well-being of Europe.[3] Moreover there is no need to go to past, if we take a look at the Paris attack on 07.01.2015. when 12 people were killed. Therefore, the growth of mosques, Islamic schools, head scarves, the traditional clothes, and facial hair have been turned into an anomaly in the European urban setting. The Muslim population seems to be seen as negative, dangerous and terroristic. Of course people are scared, but all people are scared, of all religions and nations when there are such brutal terroristic groups in question. However, is it the right thing to exclude and punish all Muslim population, is it the right thing to destroy a Kebab Shop, just because a man is selling Kebab, and that means that he is Muslim, and that means he is bad?

The world is becoming smaller, and what we are facing is an increasing interaction between consciousness and awareness of self-determination. With this I want to say that the feeling of belonging to some nation is in constant growth, which is making our world “smaller”, that’s why we may have problems with accepting different people from us. All this brings a ‘revival of religion’, and the ‘unsecularization’ of today’s world.[4]All these aspects may be seen in today society, and people’s will to belong somewhere, someone, to identify themselves, to self-determinate itself. Due to the need to feel different and special Muslims in Europe on their way felt as being in a hostile territory where they are equalized to the word terrorist and have been threatened from different sides.

It is important to point out that Muslims are not race nor a nation, they are people, sharing the same religion, but living world wide with different life styles, different perspectives and views, belonging to different races and nations. Today, according to Asef Bayat’s article ‘When Muslims and modernity meet’, 3 groups of Muslims are defined in Europe:

1. Secular Muslims: those who seem to be fully “integrated” as they try to reach out to the “majority” culture, and they are frustrated by the fact that many natives do refuse to recognize them as “Europeans.” They are educated, they respect European culture and refuse radical Islam.
2. The young extremist groups largely second-generation who rarely speak native languages, nor have much knowledge about “traditional” Islam. In other words primarily the “deculturation” of religion-the construction of a “pure,” abstract, and “fundamentalist Islam” devoid of human cultural experience and influence that inform these young Muslims.
3. It includes the first generation immigrants who try to speak the European languages, strive to hold regular jobs, and wish to live a normal life, but are oriented to practicing many aspects of their home culture-food, fashion, rituals, or private religious practices.[5]

Bosnia and Herzegovina together with Turkey are the countries of Europe where officially the most of the Muslim population resides. When visiting these countries, people may notice that there is no difference between each other. On the other side many are surprised going there and realizing that they are Muslims, and they have mosques, and still, they are going out, they are visiting theatres, they are having fun, they are laughing and living the life.

There the EU as a body stands for multicultural idea of ‘unity in diversity’, meaning that the EU shall promote the cultural diversity of its member states, yet also advance a set of values common to all.[6] European societies and institutions should follow the example of the EU, and take  label “unity in diversity” as the main idea of their governence. Despite postulates and rules, as rules are there to be broken, reality seems different these days and hate is in growing position towards the Muslim population. However what has to be accepted from the population is that a multi-ethnic Europe means also a multi-religious citizenry; it means recognizing the reality of mosques, minarets, headscarves, even burqas in public squares along with churches and temples. For the fight against terrorism, society needs to accept transformations that cultural changes may cause; society needs good Muslims to fight bad Muslims. If we alienate good Muslims too, deprive them of their right to speak and express, we will not learn, nor be able to fight against terrorism.

One of the important problems here is in focusing/unfocusing on difference. The focus has to be shifted more towards what civilisations have in common: the relationship of human beings to their environment, the importance of family, the significance of moral leadership and indeed the meaning and purpose of life.[7]

For now what we can do is work on ourselves, not be ashamed of our own cultures and nations, as we do live in a time when nation-states, and civilisations are rising again, present them in a right way, show that multiculturalism is something positive which make us even richer than we were, that is raising the level of our tolerance, making us better people, and at the same time we will make this world a better place to live.

Written by Sabiha Kapetanovic, AEGEE- Izmir