On 19 October 2022, Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations (FEMYSO) President Hande Taner shared a tweet thanking progressive Dutch MEP Samira Rafaela for voting against a set of amendments to the 2023 EU draft budget over what she saw as anti-Muslim bias. According to Taner’s tweet:
Thank you @samiraraf for voting against. I demand accountability, explanations, and actions to reverse these articles from @vonderleyen @VeraJourova @helenadalli.
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In her tweet, Taner also called the provisions “a blatant violation of our precious values of equality, human dignity, freedom of religion, freedom of expression.”
Samira Rafaela, an MEP for the progressive Democraten 66 party, said she had voted against the amendments during a 19 October 2022 vote at the European Parliament, announcing:
Despite the fact that there were very good points in it, I cannot support a report that discriminates against Muslims. It now contains two amendments that are discriminatory against our Muslims. [Translated from Dutch original using Google.]
In particular, Rafaela objected to an amendment brought forward by a group of conservative MEPs seeking to ban future EU campaigns promoting the Islamic headscarf, which she said constituted discrimination against Muslims. Another proposed budget amendment criticized by Rafaela demands that the European Commission express concern about past funding of Muslim Brotherhood organizations and guarantee that future Union funds only finance organizations that strictly respect all European values.
The Global Influence Operations Report (GIOR) has covered FEMYSO’s efforts to influence Members of the European Parliament. The group is also heavily featured in an August 2022 GIOR report titled “Europe and the Global Muslim Brotherhood Part 2: Lobbying & Political Impacts,” which analyzes Global Muslim Brotherhood lobbying at the executive and legislative bodies of the European Union.
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