The Democracy in Practice (DiP) Team composed of Andrea, Danae, Elena, Eleonora, Evrim, Johanna, Lia, May, Noemi, Sora, and Zeynep, is part of an AEGEE-Europe Project that has one of AEGEE’s experienced Project Managers, and candidate for the Comité Directeur at the Spring Agora Bergamo, Lia Tuska from AEGEE-Kastoria. In this article, the founder of the aforementioned Greek antenna tells us something about her campaign against terrorism ‘Make Room for Peace’.

‘Democracy in Practice’ is an AEGEE-Europe Project that aims to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy. They do this by promoting social and political participation of young people in their local, national, and European environment.

The project includes three types of activities: workshops, thematic events and full DiP events. The members hold workshops at different kinds of events like Network Meetings (NWMs), pre-events, Agorae and European Planning Meetings (EPMs). They also promote the idea of celebrating international days such as the Human Rights Day and Democracy Day. That is why they created the Guidelines for Human Rights and Democracy Activities. “Many locals want to organise European events. They can take care of the logistics and we can take care of the content”, says Lia. For example, currently, DiP is collaborating with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra on Summer Universities. In addition to those abovementioned activities, DiP members have their own events which aim at informing the participants about human rights, explaining to them the link between democracy and human rights and making them more aware of the importance of democracy. Last but not least, they encourage them to be active citizens.

“The Project is going to close at the Spring Agora Bergamo and reopen for a new cycle with new people, so if you are passionate about active citizenship, democracy or human rights, don’t hesitate to contact us” , adds Lia. The founder of AEGEE-Kastoria focuses on why the campaign ‘Make Room for Peace’ has been launched. In fact, after the terrorist attacks that took place in the last six months, the members of DiP were deeply saddened just as many other members of our Network. Therefore, they thought that they should do something in order to take action against terrorism by launching a campaign, and thus they created the campaign called ‘Make Room for Peace’. With this campaign, they are calling on young people, AEGEEans, who strive for mutual understanding and terror-free societies. “Our weapons are the words, actions, mind and love. We do not need arms, our arms are for hugging the world!”, says Lia. Every AEGEE member can become an ambassador. The tasks of an ambassador are: to promote the activities of the campaign, to answer the questions from locals and other members regarding the campaign, to follow the activities of the campaign and to communicate with the Project team in case of questions. Also, all members are more than welcome to share their ideas to improve the campaign by adding more activities. The peace ambassadors are also expected to help them collect the materials, like photos and summaries of what locals did regarding the campaign, at the end of the campaign.

Then, a video will be created two weeks before the Agora in order to be first presented on Saturday, 21st of May, on the International Anti-terrorism Day. But until now, there are not many locals that have taken part in the campaign: only some members of our Project, AEGEE-Brescia, AEGEE-Eskişehir, the participants of ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’, and the participants of the Local Training Course (LTC) organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen have participated in the campaign so far.

As part of the campaign, DiP members prepared a set of workshops that have been and will be held at four events. They have already had the chance to provide workshops at the ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’ event organised by AEGEE-Athina and at the LTC organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen. In Athens, the participants were introduced to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a game of charades, then they learned how people’s lives are influenced by the refugee crisis. In addition, a discussion on how those aspects are all linked to the rise of terrorism in the last few months took place. At the LTC, the participants received an introductory session on how European bodies work and then they had a role-play activity which aimed at raising awareness about the inequality of opportunities, developing their imagination and critical thinking and fostering empathy with less fortunate people. This activity closed with a discussion on how the participants felt about the roles they got. DiP members are going to have a workshop at the ‘Borderless Europe: Blessing or Burden?’ event organised by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca and Your Vision for EUrope. The last of the workshops will be held at the Spring Agora Bergamo 2016 and it will be carried out in collaboration between DiP and Your Vision for EUrope Project. There is going to be an article about the results of the whole campaign where we will explain everything.

At EPM Leiden, DiP held the workshop ‘The stories they confess’, where participants were introduced to stories of people influenced by the refugee crisis. Every AEGEE member can check some videos of their workshop on their Facebook page. DiP was also present at the EPM Fair where it promoted the Summer Universities, context in which DiP members collaborated along with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra. Lia’s group also introduced its ‘Fact Cards’ to the people who attended the Fair. These cards had information about the Refugee Crisis and Human Rights on them.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

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

Friday, January 9th. It has been only two days since the atrocious massacre that happened in Paris. On Wednesday morning, the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were assaulted, leaving 12 people dead and many others seriously injured. Among the victims were five cartoonists, which were recognized for their talents and also for being openly acid, irreverent and provocative.

I have known Charlie Hebdo for some years now, and although I’m not French and thus I don’t know well the men behind the cartoons, I felt deeply shocked. First of all because 12 people, 12 human beings, were killed because of their work – drawing cartoons. Secondly, because every second I was reminded of how ridiculous and useless their deaths were. And finally, because different feelings invaded me: fear, anxiety, insecurity, and a profound, deep sadness.

However, the sheer madness continued: on Thursday morning, an armed guy shot a policewoman in southern Paris, and later that day she died because of her injuries. The suspects of the attack to Charlie Hebdo had been identified – and they were thought as linked to a radical Islamist groups, notably Al-Qaeda. Special forces started the manhunt around the country and paranoia started to grow. At the same time, thousands gathered in the main squares of many French cities to pay respect to the victims of the murderous attacks. Today [9 January 2015], around 1pm a new hostage situation took place in Porte de Vincennes, southeast Paris. Another armed guy, allegedly related to the two gunmen responsible of the Charlie Hebdo attack, assaulted a kosher supermarket taking a group of people hostage. At this point in time, sadness and fear were both overwhelming feelings.

Through these lines, I would like to put the finger on what saddens me the most, which is the indiscriminate killing of people, anywhere in the world. And when I say “people”, I don’t put next to it “innocent”, because I want to avoid the Manichean approach of “me” vs. “others”. After reading (and taking part in some of) the debates on social media among my friends that belong to a variety of beliefs, religions and cultures, the only thought that keeps popping out in my mind is that every human being, every human life, is as precious as the others no matter where you are. And this means that yes, the killing of dozens of Yemenis that same day in Sanaa’ is as saddening as the 12 people that were shot in Paris.

Sunday, January 11th. After reading dozens of articles presenting different points of view on what has been happening since the attack at Charlie Hebdo, as well as debating with friends the whats and the whys, all I can think of is: we need to do much more to attain more peaceful and tolerant societies, and aim at justifying less in the name of an ideology or religion.

I strongly believe that the aftermath is as important as what happened today, where 4 million people rallied in France to defend freedom of expression and to mourn all 17 victims of these 5 days of horror. And when I think of the aftermath, there are many ideas that come to my mind. It is sad to see that, in the name of whatever reason, we are capable of losing our humanity. That instead of dialogue, violence is prevailing. What happened in France is as atrocious as what has been happening all around the world, where hundreds of thousands are killed, tortured or imprisoned because of senseless reasons. More than ever, I am convinced that education (and in particular, human rights education) is our only “weapon” to defeat the ignorance, the prejudices, the injustices and ultimately, the violence.

Every day we are bumping into news about violence… And they somehow pass by us. Hundreds of dead people in Syria, plane crash in Nigeria or army beating protesting people in Egypt. We are so used to hear them that somehow we have stopped realising what they mean.

We have stopped till the moment it happens in our “home.” As a journalist I have written many times

For young people like us religion or origin are not important

about terroristic bomb attacks. It has never been as close as Bourgas though. Actually Bourgas is just 400 kilometres from Sofia. It is a city on the Bulgarian “Riviera” and its airport is not even opened during the whole year. But today (18^th of July) it was opened.

In the summer it is even crowded because of many tourists. A plane from Tel Aviv just landed and the people took the bus from the plane. BANG. And for at least six Jewish tourists this was the last day among us. For 30 more in the crowded bus this will be a nightmare till the end of their lives.

A terroristic attack happened here. Not over the Adriatic sea, not over the Ocean… but just by the Black sea. Just in Bulgaria.

Working for news is not an easy job. It might seem so but sometimes there are news that don’t let you sleep, don’t let you stay aside and forget them after crossing the front door. But when I was starting to do it I was shocked how news were chosen.  Maybe sticking to main rules of the journalism we were covering news that are concerning many people (as the elections in the US) or are close geographically (European Union, your neighbours, etc.) but sometimes the death of 10 people in Doha or Nigeria were ‘minor news’ that “do not concern too many people.”

Maybe for most of you  a bomb attack in an unknown city on the Black Sea coast would also be such a news. But for me it is more than shocking… Not only because it happened in MY country. But also because it happened to a flight with Jewish people from Tel Aviv. On all the Balkans Bulgaria is famous for its hospitality. Once foreign people come here they often find their way back much later.  But we are not only friendly to foreigners but also tolerant to people we live with. In Bulgaria there is a big Turkish minority that even has their own party in the government. And Jewish people and people of Armenian origin are so accepted and positively assimilated that the only way to find out their origin is when they tell you.

So that is why an anti-Jewish terrorist attack in such a country makes the act even more scary and shocking… So let’s hear carefully the news next time and do not try to pass by reports about massacre in some parts of the world our geographic knowledge does not cover and do not underestimate it. Because no matter how scary it sounds – something like this can happen closer than we think even tomorrow.

Written by Liliya Buyukliyska, AEGEE-Sofia