Local media is reporting that the 25-year-old President of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK has died in a drowning accident on Saturday. According to the Birmingham Mail report:
July 6, 2015 Tributes paid to 25 year-old Bashir Osman who drowned in Swiss river on Saturday (July 4) Share Share Tweet +1 LinkedIn
Bashir Osman A Muslim student leader from Birmingham praised for his compassionate fundraising has drowned in a tragic swimming accident in Switzerland.
Bashir Osman died in a river in the Landquart District of Graubünden, after entering the water for a swim and being swept away by a freak current on Saturday (July 4).
The Rhine River in Landquart. The 26-year-old University of Birmingham engineering graduate was the president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), which is the national umbrella organisation for the UK’s university and college Islamic societies.
Shortly before he died, Bashir launched a personal campaign to raise £165,000 to pay for new wells and safe, clean drinking water for some of the poorest people in the world.
He was planning to take part in the Tough Mudder event and had already managed to raise more than £50,000 of his target to help build more than 50 wells across East Africa.
Bashir Osman A spokesman for the FOSIS National Executive Committee, said: ‘On Saturday July 4, whilst away in Switzerland visiting colleagues from the Federation of Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), Bashir passed away in a drowning incident having fallen under rough waters for more than 10 minutes.
‘By the time the rescue services found him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Read the rest here.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) is an umbrella grouping of most major university Islamic societies in the U.K. A 2008 report outlined its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and concluded that ISCC’s (campus Islamic societies) and FOSIS members are more likely to hold intolerant views.
In February, the GMBDW reported on a UK event known as the Palestine Conference that was organized by FOSIS during Bashir Osman’s tenure.
