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In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe:

The attack on the Freedom for Gaza Flotilla is an act of blatant piracy and a horrific massacre

In the very early hours of this Monday morning, Israeli military forces—by premeditated decision of their government—committed a gross and bloody act of piracy against the “Freedom Flotilla”; ships that had embarked from several European ports aiming to take humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are suffering under a strangling and immoral blockade.

Reports spoke of heavy concentrations of Israeli forces—authorised by the extremist right-wing Israeli government, attacking and boarding the ships of the “Freedom Flotilla” in international waters. On board these ships are humanitarian aid teams, media professionals, parliamentarians, and representatives of European and world civil society institutions. The Israeli forces in their aggression have committed a bloody massacre on board the ships with tens of victims, both dead and wounded, among the unarmed civilians, who are only carrying humanitarian supplies, food, medicine, children’s toys, and material for reconstruction.

Such a blatant attack on 750 civilians of diverse nationalities from across the world, travelling on European ships to the Gaza Strip, is a very dangerous development in the train of naked Israeli violations, and a blood-drenched message from the Israeli occupation to the entire world reflecting its complete and utter disregard for humanitarian conventions, international law and norms. The Israeli authorities have acted as the rogue state above the law.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe emphasises that the “Freedom Flotilla” is a live expression of human conscience rising against the unjust blockade inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza; given that this blockade is a reprehensible crime rejected by religion, human values, moral standards, and international conventions. These seafarers travelling to Gaza present an image of courageous human solidarity that has broken the wall of silence surrounding the blockade, and scored a victory for the right of peoples to life and dignity.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe condemns in the strongest possible terms this act of piracy and mass killing perpetrated against the “Freedom Flotilla”, and demands serious and urgent official European action to confront this dangerous piracy, and bloody massacre, and put an end to a long series of blatant Israeli violations.

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe also expresses its solidarity with those humanitarian organisations, public figures, and European and world media participating in the Freedom Flotilla, and calls upon civil society and media institutions in Europe to take up responsible stances corresponding to the enormity of the crime, and to focus attention on the grave and serious nature of this bloody attack on a humanitarian convoy, as well as the crime of a suffocating blockade inflicted on human beings.

The Federation calls upon Muslims in Europe, and the general public in European societies, to urgently mobilise—in wide-scale and public action, to condemn the blatant piracy and bloody massacre perpetrated against the Freedom Flotilla, and to escalate in the legitimate demand for a lifting of the unjust blockade on Gaza that can no longer be tolerated.

Brussels, 31 May 2010

The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe