(AFP) Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini launched Tuesday an anti-migration manifesto aiming at next year’s European parliament elections, and countering their opposing camp led by the French president. “There are currently two camps in […]
(Local) Billionaire Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Monday August 27th that a comprehensive action plan is necessary to stop illegal migration, which he will address on a visit to Italy and Malta this week. “If Italy and Malta won’t welcome […]
(Local) A senior local politician for Sweden’s Christian Democrats risks being … ejected from the party for calling for Islamists to be shot. Göran Jonzon, second in the party’s candidate list for the municipal council in Vilhelmina in the far north of […]
(AFP) Italy’s deputy prime minister has threatened to pull the country’s EU funding if the bloc does not come to the aid of 150 people stranded aboard an Italian coastguard ship. The migrants have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania […]
(AP) The Dutch prime minister on Friday distanced his government from a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest being organized later this year by anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders. Wilders “is not a member of the government. The competition is not a government initiative,” Prime […]
(JTA) A Swedish politician from Malmo who has worked on integration of immigrants denied saying that Jews and Armenians have “impure spirits.” Muhammad Khorshid, who represents the Liberals on the city council of the municipality in southern Sweden, told Expressen that the […]
(Dutch News) Amsterdam’s new mayor Femke Halsema wants to take action against radical imams who do not break the law but are still “undesirable,” according to the city’s local paper the Parool. In addition, Halsema wants an end to mosque financing from […]
(Radio France) An alleged Islamist terror plotter was freed in April because an investigating judge forget to renew his pretrial custody, France’s justice ministry has admitted after revelations in the press. Oualid B walked out of preventive detention on 3 April despite the […]
(Deutsche Welle) In the first six months of 2018, there were 320 offenses committed against Muslims, mosques and other institutions associated with Islam in Germany, according to information from the Interior Ministry. That’s significantly lower than the nearly 500 cases reported during […]
(Local) Swedish authorities have said they are looking into an Islamic group which is encouraging Muslims in Sweden to abstain from voting in the upcoming election. The Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir has launched a campaign under the slogan “Use your voice — […]
(AAP) A spiritual healer denied telling a Sydney man he was drawing out black blood which was “the evil” when he placed suction cups on him and read out the Koran. Riza Morinaj also told police the man did not tell him […]
(Weekly Standard) The allegations against Keith Ellison are explosive, though at this point unproven. The Minnesota congressman’s ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan alleges that he verbally and physically abused her in 2016. “He looked at me, goes ‘Hey you f—ing hear me’ … and […]
(Express Tribune) Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the Netherlands over a Dutch politician’s announcement of holding a competition of blasphemous caricatures. “The charge d’affaires of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was summoned to the Foreign Office on Monday and a […]
(Canadian Jewish News) The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) says it is “disgusted” and “alarmed” that a Toronto-based Arabic-language newspaper glorified Palestinian mothers who “sacrifice” their sons as suicide bombers and terrorists. CIJA said the Aug. 3 issue of Meshwar […]
(Yle) A citizens’ initiative demanding that lawmakers draw up a specific law to outlaw FGM in Finland has attracted over 50,000 signatures. This means it has met the threshold enacted in a 2012 Finnish law, and the Finnish Parliament must now put […]
(AFP) Chants of “Allahu akbar” rang out Saturday at a solemn Catholic state funeral in the Italian city of Genoa for the victims of a bridge collapse, who included two Albanian Muslims. They were among at least 38 people to have died […]
(JTA) J Street has withdrawn its endorsement of Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan who recently called for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tlaib, who is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, also called for a reduction in […]
(BBC) A mosque where the Manchester Arena bomber worshipped denies encouraging people to “fight in any military struggle” following a BBC report. A sermon by Imam Mustafa Graf at Didsbury Mosque in 2016 called for the support of fighters in Syria, according […]
(AP) Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison said Friday he won’t abandon his campaign for attorney general amid allegations that he once physically abused an ex-girlfriend and said if she claims to have a video of the incident she should produce it. Normally a […]
(Swiss Info) A couple who refused to shake hands or answer questions with members of the opposite sex on a naturalisation board in Lausanne have been denied Swiss citizenship. In a statement issued on Friday, the Lausanne city authorities confirmed a recent […]
(AFP) Austria has rejected the asylum application of an Afghan claiming to be gay because he did not “act” or “dress” like a homosexual, according to a media report. An official in Lower Austria state found no grounds for fear of persecution […]
(JTA) A Michigan Democrat who is all but certain to become a congresswoman said she would “absolutely” vote against military aid to Israel, sparking criticism from a Jewish Democratic group. The candidate, Rashida Tlaib, also said in an interview that she favors […]
(JNS) Minnesota state lawmaker Ilhan Omar, who has labeled Israel as an “apartheid regime” that has “hypnotized the world,” is favored to take a seat in Congress after winning her Democratic primary on Tuesday in a heavily Democratic district in her state. […]
(Local) A Muslim woman whose job interview was cut short when it became known that she would not shake hands with male colleagues for religious reasons, was indirectly discriminated against, the Swedish Labour Court has ruled. The 24-year-old woman had been called […]
(Local) In a further sign of divisions within Italy’s populist coalition government, politicians from the far-right League blasted Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi for comparing the mass migration of Italians in the past to the foreigners landing on the country’s shores today. […]
(AFP) An appeals court in Paris has upheld a decision by judges to keep Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan in jail while he is being investigated on rape charges brought by two women, a legal source told AFP on Thursday. Lawyers for Ramadan […]
(Deutsche Welle) A spokeswoman for the German Interior Ministry said Wednesday that an agreement had been made to send back to Spain some migrants arriving in Germany. Eleonore Petermann said the deal had been signed by the German and Spanish interior ministries on […]
(AP) German authorities say they have arrested a German man who is accused of spying on a mosque for Jordan. Federal prosecutors said the 33-year-old, identified only as Alexander B. because of German privacy rules, was arrested Tuesday. They didn’t specify where. […]
(Swiss Info) A ban on face-covering clothing in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino has affected masked football supporters the most. Hardly any wearers of burkas or niqabs, the original targets of the ban, have been fined. In 2013, two-thirds of Ticino’s […]
(Local) Rachid Nekkaz, a French-Algerian businessman and activist, has said he will keep a promise he made earlier this year to pay fines issued in Denmark for breaches of the new law against face-masking garments. The law, popularly known as the “burqa […]
(AP) A Muslim civil rights organization said Tuesday it plans to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s terror watch list system, including a newly disclosed program in which air marshals have secretly monitored air passengers with no known […]
(Deutsche Welle) Children from Islamist households in Germany represent a “not insignificant potential threat,” the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence service, Hans-Georg Maassen said Monday. In a new report cited by the Funke media […]
(BBC) Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been accused of Islamophobia after saying Muslim women wearing burkas “look like letter boxes.” He said he was against bans on face-covering veils in public places, in his Telegraph column, but added that they looked […]
(AFP) German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Sunday said he hoped for a breakthrough this week in talks with Italy and Greece on taking back asylum-seekers already registered in those countries, as Berlin toughens its migration policies. Seehofer, whose push for tighter […]
(Dutch News) A mosque in Amsterdam has been giving shelter to fundamentalist Muslims who went on to join Islamic State, the Telegraaf reported on Friday. The paper bases its claim on a photograph which it says shows four “heavyweights from extremist circles” […]
(AFP) A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported. Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, […]
(Local) A photo of a police officer hugging an emotional niqab-wearing woman at a demonstration in Denmark on Wednesday has become one of the country’s most widely-shared images this week. The demonstration in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighbourhood on Wednesday took place as a […]
(BBC) Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson has been released on bail after winning an appeal against a contempt of court finding. The 35-year-old admitted the charge and was jailed in May for filming outside Leeds Crown Court during a […]
(AFP) France’s parliament Wednesday signed into law a controversial asylum and immigration bill — despite opposition on the left which decried an effort to limit arrivals while the far right saw the measure as not going far enough. The bill is designed […]
(AFP) Denmark’s ban on the Islamic full-face veil in public spaces came into force on Wednesday, with anyone wearing a garment that hides the face in public risking a fine. Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women’s […]
(IPT) While polls show him lagging in third place in a three-candidate primary, Abdul El-Sayed promises to shock the political world Aug. 7 by becoming Michigan’s Democratic nominee for governor. He’s running an ambitious campaign that mirrors the success political novice Alexandria […]
(BBC) Australia’s first openly gay imam, Nur Warsame, counsels Muslims around the world not to feel shame about sexuality. Unable to travel due to security concerns, he set up Marhaba — an online prayer group — five years ago. He tells the […]
(Local) Green Party co-chairman Robert Habeck has weighed in on the debate surrounding Mesut Özil’s retirement from the German national football team, saying that interior minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) must shoulder some of the blame. Habeck said that Seehofer, who is also […]
(AFP) Danish prosecutors on Tuesday charged an imam with calling for the killing of Jews in the first case of its kind in the Nordic nation and which sparked political outrage. Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Norrebro […]
(Arab News) The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned a cartoon competition to depict the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The contest was announced by the Dutch far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), headed by anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders. “While the whole […]
(JTA) Austria’s vice chancellor has called for a ban on ritual slaughter in the country, including Jewish shechitah. Heinz-Christian Strache, the nation’s interior minister and head of the far-right Freedom Party, in a Facebook post Monday said animals should be stunned before […]
(AFP) French police on Monday cleared some 450 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from a park in the western city of Nantes where they had been camping for more than a month. Regional authorities said 455 people were cleared in the operation, ordered […]
(Middle East Monitor) The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK has revealed details about the deportation of an Egyptian Islamic preacher who is opposed to the Egyptian regime by the Spanish authorities. Spain handed over Alaa Mohamed Said, 45, who […]
(JTA) A Dutch municipality rejected a Turkish entrepreneur’s plan to transform a 125-year-old synagogue into a restaurant. The city council of Deventer in the east of the Netherlands last week deemed the plan “inconsistent with the building’s character,” a decision which blocked […]
(Deutsche Welle) In a local vote on Sunday, the residents of Kaufbeuren, a small town in Bavaria, decided against providing public land for the construction of a mosque. At issue was the question of whether the city would provide the local branch […]
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