In 2018, I had the immense honour of leading the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) delegation to the European Youth Event (EYE). I remember standing inside the European Parliament, looking at the hundreds of bright, diverse young faces, filled with a profound sense of hope. I believed deeply that this was a sacred space to engage young people, a place where they could truly experience the leading democratic institution in Europe. Today, as President of FEMYSO, that hope has been replaced by utter shock and outrage.
For the first time in the history of the European Parliament, a European organisation is being banned. And shockingly, or perhaps not shockingly at all, it is the leading Muslim youth organisation in Europe that is being targeted, sacrificed to appease the relentless bullying of the far right.
Let us be completely clear about what is happening: the European Parliament is allowing itself to be intimidated by xenophobic political forces. While the Parliament has not yet publicly announced this ban, nor have they had the decency to inform or involve us in any process, far-right MEP Marion Maréchal has already claimed victory for our exclusion online. If this is true, the European Parliament has effectively allowed the far right to dictate who gets a seat at the table of European democracy.
FEMYSO is the only European Muslim youth network organisation of its kind. We represent over 30 national member organisations across Europe, speaking for hundreds of thousands of Muslim youth. For nearly three decades, we have worked tirelessly to connect these young people with European institutions, ensuring their voices are represented in the spaces that shape their futures.
Yet, for years, our reward for this civic dedication has been a barrage of racism, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and targeted harassment. At previous EYE events, our delegations of Muslim youth were constantly attacked, slurred, and harassed by far-right politicians and youth delegates. We didn’t run away. We continued to engage, we continued to believe in the European project, and we kept coming back. And now, in a sickening twist of irony, the European Parliament is banning the very victims of that harassment.
There is absolutely NO legitimate reason for this ban. No one has ever complained about the content of FEMYSO’s sessions at the EYE. Our delegations have consistently been respectful, engaging, and highly regarded by both the event organisers and our fellow youth participants. Instead, the Parliament’s Bureau is acting on entirely unfounded allegations, weaponised by anti-Muslim actors.
This hostility did not happen in a vacuum. It was recently exposed that a Swiss PR firm, funded by foreign, non-European countries, ran a massive, organised smear campaign specifically designed to target and delegitimise FEMYSO. This dark-money operation directly correlated with a surge in smearing and targeting by far-right political groups. The European Parliament is now falling directly into the trap laid by these foreign interference networks and local extremists.
By capitulating to this pressure, the European Parliament is sending a devastatingly clear message to millions of young European Muslims: You are not welcome in the very institutions that are supposed to represent you.
This goes beyond FEMYSO. If the European Parliament establishes a precedent where sustained political pressure, racism, and intimidation can successfully erase a minority organisation, then civic space is dead for everyone. Today it is the Muslim youth; tomorrow it will be organisations fighting for human rights, climate justice, or migration equality.
I demand that President Roberta Metsola step up, defend the core values of European democracy, and immediately reverse this decision if it has been taken. The European Parliament must not allow itself to be the enforcement arm of far-right bigotry. We will not be silenced, and we will not be erased from the Europe we call home.
