(Brussels Times) The number of Islamist attacks in Europe slightly decreased in 2019, according to a report delivered by the French terrorism assessment centre (CAT) highlighting the problems Islamic State (IS) has experienced since losing its self-proclaimed caliphate. “In 2019, the threat […]
(AFP) Police on the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants protesting against tougher new asylum rules, officials said. Brandishing makeshift signs with the word “freedom,” some 2,000 men and women walked out of the overpopulated […]
(AFP) A court in Germany ruled Monday against an attempt by authorities in Hamburg to forbid a 16-year-old schoolgirl from wearing a niqab during lessons. The ruling, which cannot be appealed, has fuelled debate in Germany over whether schools should allow the […]
(AP) A Minnesota Roman Catholic priest apologized Wednesday for saying in a sermon that Islam was “the greatest threat in the world” to the United States and Christianity. The Rev. Nick VanDenBroeke apologized in a statement issued by the St. Paul-Minnesota Catholic […]
(Radio France) A French national who was convicted for his crucial role in recruiting youths in France to fight as jihadists in Syria was handed down a 22-year prison sentence in a Paris court on Friday evening. Prosecutors named Mourad Farès, 35, […]
(Local) Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s visit to Israel included attending a major event to commemorate victims of the Holocaust, but also discussing concerns about anti-Semitism in Sweden today. “Swedish Jews worry about anti-Semitism and do not feel completely comfortable showing publicly […]
(AP) The cyber-bullying must stop. That was the message forcefully delivered by France’s equality minister in an impassioned appeal Friday on behalf of a 16-year-old who has been hounded online after posting comments critical of Islam. The girl has faced a deluge […]
(Deutsche Welle) A Berlin court on Friday sentenced a 32-year-old Islamist to five years and four months in prison for planning a serious terror attack involving explosives. The man, identified only as Magomed-Ali C. under German privacy laws, is thought to have […]
(Yle) Finland’s Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen wants to bring charges against Finns Party MP Juha Mäenpää for inciting hatred against an ethnic group. As Mäenpää delivered a speech before the legislature last June, he likened asylum seekers to an invasive species. According […]
(AP) The Pentagon has given the Navy and other military services conditional approval to resume training of Saudi Arabian nationals in the U.S. Operational training, such as flying and other non-classroom work, for the approximately 850 Saudis at multiple U.S. bases was […]
(BBC) Terror offenders will face more time in jail and be monitored more closely as part of new laws being introduced within weeks, the government has said. Automatic early release from prison will be scrapped for terror offenders while a minimum jail […]
(Dutch News) Education minister Arie Slob went beyond his remit in demanding the resignation of the board of Amsterdam’s only Islamic secondary school, a court has ruled. Slob violated the constitutional freedom of education when he threatened to stop funding for the […]
(AFP) Security forces on Monday arrested seven men believed to be planning a terror attack in France and preparing to travel to conflict zones in Iraq and Syria, sources close to the case told AFP. [They] were detained by France’s DGSI domestic […]
(Radio France) The trial opened in Paris on Monday of Mourad Farès, who is accused of running a group of jihadists as well as recruiting people to fight in Syria and financing terrorism. It’s thought the 35-year-old from Thonon-les-bains in eastern France […]
(Prince William Times) Human rights lawyer and former Democratic candidate for Virginia state Senate Qasim Rashid announced Monday his bid to represent Virginia’s 1st District in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican, has held the seat since 2007. Rashid, 37, […]
(Swiss Info) Switzerland’s largest mosque, which has been embroiled in various controversies, is to come under Swiss management. “It is time to hand over the mosque in Geneva to a Swiss executive board, which is representative, with an elected president board: a […]
(Local) Sweden’s prime minister has called for a serious reduction in the number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden, in a swing to the right on asylum that is already endangering his coalition deal with the pro-immigration Green Party. In an interview […]
(Local) A senior politician for Norway’s far-right Progress Party has called for a total moratorium on new refugees in Oslo, as her party mulls what price it will demand for staying part of Norway’s coalition government. Tone Ims Larssen told [the] Norwegian […]
(CBC) Civil rights groups challenging Quebec’s controversial ban on religious symbols have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Last month, Quebec’s Court of Appeal rejected a request to suspend portions of the law, known as Bill 21, pending a ruling on its constitutionality. […]
(Local) The government is to work for tough new laws on citizens convicted of foreign militant activity, but is likely to be challenged by parties to its left. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, along with Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup and Minister for […]
(Local) The government is to announce new policies clamping down on individuals who have connections to foreign militant groups. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, along with Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup and Minister for Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye, will on Thursday present […]
(AFP) Norway said Tuesday it was repatriating from Syria a woman linked to the Islamic State group and her two children, one of them reportedly seriously ill, citing humanitarian reasons. Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, confirming the operation to bring them home, […]
(Deutsche Welle) Police carried out raids at properties across four German states on Tuesday morning, targeting suspected Islamists who were believed to be “planning a serious violent act endangering the state.” Prosecutors in Berlin said the suspects were of “Chechen origin from […]
(Deutsche Welle) A German court on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old Syrian man to life in prison for double homicide and accessory to 17 counts of murder committed during his time as an Islamist militant. The former Nusra Front jihadi was found guilty […]
(BBC) Concert venues and sports stadiums could soon get airport-style checks after the government backed “Martyn’s Law” security measures. It follows a campaign by the mother of Manchester Arena bomb victim Martyn Hett, who died in the 2017 attack. Security Minister Brandon […]
(BBC) An inmate suspected of attacking a prison officer is understood to be in jail for “preparing an act of terrorism.” Brusthom Ziamani was found guilty in 2015 of planning to behead a soldier. A union says the officer, who was seriously […]
(BBC) An attack on prison staff by two inmates with bladed weapons is being treated as a terror attack, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed. Four officers and a nurse were injured at HMP Whitemoor in March, Cambridgeshire, on Thursday. One attacker is […]
(AP) The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights office will investigate reports that travelers of Iranian descent were singled out for extra scrutiny as they crossed the border from Canada into Washington last weekend, according to U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal. The Seattle […]
(BBC) Clubs and venues in Manchester will be asked to adopt new anti-terror measures following a campaign by the mother of arena bomb victim Martyn Hett. The 29-year-old was one of 22 people killed in the suicide bombing in 2017. His mother […]
(AP) The FBI asked Apple this week to help extract data from iPhones that belonged to the Saudi aviation student who investigators say fatally shot three sailors at a U.S. naval base in Florida last month. Investigators have been trying to access […]
(Prague Morning) Former Prague imam Samer Shehadeh admitted on Tuesday that he had helped his brother and sister-in-law travel to Syria to join a terrorist organization, Jabhat Fatah as-Sham (Conquest of Syria). Along with his brother Omar and his sister-in-law Fátima Hudková, […]
(Local) Last year, 111,094 people applied for asylum in Germany — a drop of 14.3 percent compared to the previous year. Government figures show 8,534 fewer applications for asylum were submitted in 2019 than in the previous year when 129,628 claims were […]
(AFP) German police on Monday said they had found no indication yet that a knife-wielding Turkish man shot dead after trying to attack officers had a terrorist motive, adding that he had psychological problems. The 37-year-old struck a parked patrol car with […]
(Radio France) On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the trial of 24 suspected jihadists linked to the massacre that killed 12 people at the satirical weekly has opened in Paris. Only five of the suspects are […]
(AFP) German police have shot dead a knife-wielding Turkish man who sought to attack officers in the city of Gelsenkirchen. The man, who lived in Gelsenkirchen, struck a patrol car with an object on Sunday and sought to assail officers standing by […]
(AP) German prosecutors have filed terror charges against a Syrian man accused of commanding a unit of Islamic State group fighters in his homeland. Prosecutors in Frankfurt said Monday that the 33-year-old, whose name they didn’t release, was charged with membership in […]
(AFP) French police shot and injured a knife-wielding man in the northeastern city of Metz on Sunday, two days after a suspected Islamist radical stabbed a man to death near Paris, investigators said. Metz public prosecutor Christian Mercuri told AFP the man […]
(AP) Italy on Saturday expelled a Moroccan imam back to his home country because of what it said was his support for the Islamic State group. Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese cited reasons of state security in sending the 41-year-old imam, identified only […]
(Deutsche Welle) Germany has revised its terror threat levels at home and abroad following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the country’s Interior Ministry said, confirming an earlier report by a German newspaper. Updated guidance was sent to police in Germany’s 16 states by […]
(AFP) French anti-terrorist investigators said Saturday they have taken over the probe into an attack by a knife-wielding man who killed one person walking with his wife in a park south of Paris before being shot dead by police. Police said the […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss authorities have revoked the citizenship of a French-Swiss [woman] for her suspected links to the Islamic State militant group. In an information published in the Federal Gazette on December 31, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said the […]
(Dutch News) Turkey has sent a 28-year-old Dutch woman who went to Syria to join IS forces back to the Netherlands, along with her four-year-old child, the public prosecution department has confirmed. The Telegraaf named her as Kawtar S from Gouda who […]
(BBC) More than 60 migrants have been picked up while attempting to cross the Channel in small boats. Forty-nine people in four boats were met by Border Force and brought to England, while a further two boats were dealt with by French […]
(AFP) Half as many migrants landed on Italian shores in 2019 compared with the year before, the latest interior ministry figures show. Italy has struggled to cope with a flood of immigrants in recent years and has called on other European Union […]
(Deutsche Welle) Germany is struggling to deport rejected asylum seekers, the country’s top police chief said on Wednesday. Federal police chief Dieter Romann blamed a lack of pre-deportation facilities for deportations not being carried out. Speaking to Germany’s Funke media group, he […]
(Brussels Times) Belgian police have been able to register an increasing trend of forced marriages in Belgium. In 2015, 10 forced marriages were officially recorded, in 2016, the number increased to 15, in 2017 up to 21 and last year, police registered […]
(Brussels Times) Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will send around forty new imams to Belgium in 2020, a lot more than in previous years. They are being sent in response to the shortage being faced by many Turkish mosques, Het Laatste Nieuws […]
(Deutsche Welle) Since the 2016 terrorist attack in Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, German authorities have prevented a further nine attacks of a similar nature, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said Sunday. Indeed, last month alone, two acts of terror were thwarted, the BKA told Germany’s Welt […]
(Yle) Speaking on Yle’s talk show Ykkösaamu on Saturday, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she was very pleased with the government’s decision to repatriate Finnish children from the al-Hol refugee camp. “It’s up to ministry officials to determine whether Finland will also […]
(Yle) Two Finnish children from the al-Hol refugee camp are in the care of Finnish authorities and en route to Finland on Saturday evening, the Foreign Ministry’s Under Secretary of State Pekka Puustinen said at a press conference on Saturday just after […]
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