First meeting of the students

Our principles

1. All Arab people must be considered belonging to one indivisible nation and hence ought to strive after the completion of this unity. However, diligence to Arab unity should not merely be an identity reflex since Arab unity is also a political, economic, social and historical necessity.

2. Considering and defending the Arabness of Palestine alongside the plight of struggle with its people towards the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. Hence, the Zionist entity ‘Israel’ remains a colonial settler base with no right to exist on any fraction of Arab soil. Furthermore we consider armed struggle and martyrdom as the unique strategy for liberating Palestine.

3. Striving after the liberation of all Arab territories, economies and societies which implies struggling against all forms of colonialism, imperialism and Zionism.

4. Struggling against all intrigues which purpose is to normalize relations with the Zionist enemy and all other sources of imperialism.

5. Encouraging the Arab youth in Europe to frequent universities and high schools in order to obtain high diplomas.

6. Reviving among our youth the Arabic language and Arab-Islamic culture by organizing cultural and educative activities.

7. Struggling against racial discrimination and Islamophobia in all fields of European society, particularly at the level of education and employment.

8. Creating an organic bond with Arab students in Europe and those living in the Arab World through continuous communication at both political and cultural levels.

Our slogan : To the top through knowledge
Our hymn : All Arab countries are my nation/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJd4uDBV6P0&feature=related

zaterdag 13 februari 2010

First meeting of the students

The League of Arab Students in Europe gathered for the first time in Antwerp. All the founders met the new enthusiastic members. The evening started with the presentation of our student project and the description of the kind of activities and efforts that are necessary in order to achieve our objectives. First we explained the need for a student organization led by Arab students in Europe and the role it could/should play in the emancipation struggle of ethnic and cultural minorities in Europe in general, and the Arab Diaspora in particular, as to enable the achievement of equal rights and full citizenship and how to face as a young generation the different challenges on all levels.

Furthermore we reemphasized the fact that adherence to our roots, identity and nation are significant notions in the creation and maintaining of a strong relation with the Arab homeland in order to bridge the widening gap between the Arab Diaspora and their countries of origin. Taking into account the exposure to cultural assimilation that the second and third generation of Arabs encounter and the pressure exerted on them it is incumbent upon us to present an alternative and viable model. Hence our eagerness to revive and promote the Arabic language among this segment of the population as lingua franca in order to strengthen the self-consciousness and the key role all this plays in preserving our religious, cultural and national heritage.

In addition to that we discussed some ideological topics such as the complementary link between Arabism and Islam, the importance of international solidarity and alliances with all the political currents struggling against American imperialism and Western hegemony in the Third World, and our particular definition of nationalism with regards to liberation. Having discussed all these topics, we ended the formal part of this meeting by emphasizing the centrality of the Palestinian cause and the need to define it as the main Arab-Islamic cause where deprivation, oppression and colonialism have encountered in the most perverse form.