A Belgian newspaper is reporting that over 400 European Muslim organizations will be meeting this week in Brussels under the auspices of a Muslim Brotherhood organization to sign a “code of conduct” with rules Muslims living in Europe. According to the report, initiative came from the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) which is the European umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood. The report explains the code of conduct or “charter” as follows:
…the charter is a code of conduct with a number of rules for the European Muslim citizen. “He must know that the European culture is a democratic culture in which he can practice his religion, but that it’s also another culture in which some issues are not self-evident and that not everything is accepted, such as for example the wearing of the headscarf in some functions.” On the other hand, the charter also asks for respect from non-Muslims. For example, respect for the fact that a Muslim can’t decide on his own about issues imposed by religion. The manifest will urge Muslims to take an active part in society and concentrates especially on the values of mutual understanding and inter-cultural dialog.
The report also indicates that in the “second-phase” , non-Muslim organizations will be asked to sign the accord which was rewritten and adapted after the attacks of September 11 and those in Madrid and London.
The gathering is being sponsored by the Liga voor Moslims in België (LMB) which has ties to both FIOE and an older FIOE member organization in Belgium. Rather deceptively, the news report quotes an LMB leader who claims that “the fact that the European Council of Fatwa and Research (ECFR) supports the accord is of historic importance”:
The accord is supported by the most prominent scholars of the theological side. They contributes to the duties of the European Muslim citizen. That was certainly not simple and they will also ensure that the Muslim community will be acquainted with the contents of the accord. Other organizations, such as youth and women organizations, will inform Muslims through their activities.
It would be rather surprising if the ECFR, led by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, did not support the FIOE initiative since the ECFR is actually a part of FIOE. As previous posts have discussed, the Muslim Brotherhood often inflates the breadth of its support by listing multiple organizations that are, in fact, part of its own organizational structure.