(Anadolu) The desecration of a Quran by a French national in Greece’s Western Thrace region this week was meant to disturb public peace in the region, said one of the Turkish minority’s elected religious leaders on Friday. In his Friday sermon at […]
(New Arab) The French government has deported an Algerian Salafist preacher who was accused of glorifying terrorism, French media reported on Wednesday. Abderrahim Sayah, who founded the As-Sunnah mosque in Hautmont which was shut down by authorities in 2018, was deported to Algeria on instructions from […]
(BBC) A teenage Islamic State convert who has admitted plotting attacks on British police and soldiers has had his sentencing delayed after reports he has threatened to behead a prison imam. The judge at the Old Bailey has adjourned the sentencing of […]
(Swiss Info) With a “Salam aleikum,” teacher Nimetullah Veseli greets the pupils of year four in the Kirchacker school building. Veseli stands in front of the six boys and six girls in the classroom in Neuhausen, Schaffhausen. Wearing jeans and a white […]
(ITV) The imam of a Birmingham mosque has condemned violence against police over the weekend in the city. West Midlands Police officers were undertaking a joint operation with Birmingham City Council investigating illegal street trading when they faced backlash. A number of missiles […]
(CNN) Abdullah el-Faisal believed every word in a speech by Osama bin Laden was “like a gem,” and thought images of the coffins of US service members were laughable, New York prosecutors say. They also believe the Muslim cleric is “one of […]
(News.com.au) A prominent Muslim preacher has come under fire for a raft of highly offensive social media posts about Australia’s gay community. Mohamed Shaar, who works as a natural healer and authorised marriage celebrant at Sydney’s Ruqyah Centre in south-western Sydney, regularly […]
(BBC) A Muslim preacher who was close to the Manchester bomber had been suspected by MI5 of radicalising people more than a decade earlier, the BBC can reveal. A public inquiry into the atrocity will this week report on how Salman Abedi […]
(Brussels Times) Sebastien Courtoy, lawyer for Smail Farisi, argued in the Brussels Court of Assizes on Thursday that Oussama Atar, who led the terrorist cell responsible for the 22 March 2016 attacks from Syria, had been released by the authorities to become […]
(Breitbart) A 30-year-old suspected Islamic radical has been arrested in Sweden after allegedly carrying out at least five rapes at a care home while working at the facility last autumn. The man is said to have been employed at the care home, […]
(BBC) A religious chief criticised in a damning review of the UK’s scheme to prevent terrorism has hit back after being singled out in the report. The report commissioned by the Home Office suggests the Prevent strategy, which aims to identify potential […]
(Breitbart) Imams who granted temporary marriages to Muslims hiring prostitutes have been sacked from their roles after Swedish media exposed their activities last year. The imams, who are members of the Shia Islamic community, were found to have been paid to grant […]
(NY Times) For years, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, promoted an extreme form of Islam that advocated killing nonbelievers. In Britain, his incitements sent him to prison in 2003. He was kicked out of Kenya in 2010. At home in Jamaica, he […]
(Swiss Info) The Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg completed its first further education course for imams in autumn. Hansjörg Schmid, director of the centre, takes stock of the experience. The 12-month course attracted a great deal […]
(AP) A Muslim religious leader’s instruction to women to dutifully accept a husband’s “invitation to bed” to procreate has sparked outrage among many Turkish Cypriots, who saw the remarks as an imported encroachment of fundamentalist Islam on their secular community. “We don’t […]
(JNS) Born in Tunisia in 1972, Hassen Chalghoumi received his undergraduate degree from a university in Damascus before studying theology in Pakistan. The father of five children, he arrived in 1996 in France, where he became the imam of the Drancy mosque […]
(Brussels Times) Hassan Iquioussen, the Moroccan imam accused by French authorities of spreading hate, was sent back to Morocco on Friday, Belgium’s state secretary for asylum and migration, Nicole de Moor, reported. Iquioussen had fled to Belgium in summer after France decided […]
(Breitbart) A notorious Islamist hate preacher reportedly called for Muslims to target British troops in response to Prince Harry’s claims that he killed 25 people during the Afghanistan War. Anjem Choudary, an infamous convicted hate cleric in the United Kingdom, previously imprisoned […]
(Swiss Info) Mustafa Memeti, the imam of the Muslim Association of Bern and responsible for the mosque in the Swiss capital’s House of Religions, has announced he will stand down at the end of April. Memeti, 62, said in a statement on […]
(Morocco World News) Authorities in Belgium are seeking to deport Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen to Morocco. News outlet BFMTV quoted sources that Belgium will deport the imam directly to Morocco. Belgian authorities arrested Iquioussen in September of last year. The imam has […]
(Kathimerini) Interior Minister Makis Voridis has intervened to ascertain the legality of the decision by a mayor in Rodopi, northeastern Greece, to fire workers accused of being supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled cleric and preacher that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
(JNS) Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Islamic scholar and thinker, has dedicated his life to fighting Islamic extremism. Physically attacked for his positions and forced to flee his home in Australia when it was vandalized by extremists, it is perhaps no wonder he […]
(Algemeiner) Austria’s education minister has ordered an investigation into a mosque in Vienna exposed as a hotbed of antisemitic and Islamist incitement. Education Minister Susanne Raab said on Friday that the investigation of the Al-Hidaya Mosque in the Leopoldstadt neighborhood of the […]
(Euronews) Muslim leaders in Spain called for calm ahead of Tuesday’s crunch World Cup decider between Spain and Morocco amid fears of a repeat of crowd trouble in Belgium last week. Photographs and videos showed cars being smashed and upturned, and fires […]
(Brussels Times) The Conseil du Contentieux des Étrangers (CCE — Foreigners Litigation Council) has rejected an appeal by Imam Hassan Iquioussen, a Moroccan preacher fighting to avoid deportation, according to a ruling published on Monday. The imam wanted his order to leave […]
(NY Times) In late 2016, Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican preacher who was an outspoken supporter of the Islamic State, began communicating on WhatsApp with a woman in New York who claimed to be an aspiring jihadist with medical training. He offered to […]
(JNS) A delegation of American Muslim community leaders plans to visit two of the Abraham Accords countries, Bahrain and Israel. Sharaka — a Middle East-based NGO that promotes people-to-people peace and engagement — and the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council […]
(Brussels Times) Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen was placed in a closed centre on Tuesday, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor said in a statement. “We remain in contact with France to ensure his removal,” she added. The Belgian judiciary had […]
(Reuters) A Belgian appeal court on Tuesday upheld a ruling dismissing a European arrest warrant issued for a French-born Moroccan imam that Paris wants to deport over alleged hateful remarks. France’s interior ministry sought in July to deport the preacher, Hassan Iquioussen, […]
(AAP) An imam who claimed a Melbourne man he had never met was an “ISIS promoter” has been ordered to pay $20,000 in aggravated damages. Imam Mohammad Tawhidi made the claims on social media, where he has hundreds of thousands of followers. […]
(Algemeiner) A prominent French imam has vowed to continue combating antisemitism and advancing interfaith dialogue with the Jewish community following an attempted attack on his mosque by a knife-wielding assailant. “I’ve been living under police protection for years, I’m getting used to […]
(AFP) A Belgian court on Friday refused to extradite an imam, Hassan Iquioussen, to France to face charges of hate speech and anti-Semitism, according to one of his lawyers. But prosecutors immediately lodged an appeal, and said the matter will be heard […]
(NL Times) The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is prosecuting a 42-year-old man from Tilburg and a mosque foundation for perjury, money laundering, and forgery. According to the OM, the man and the foundation he represented lied to a parliamentary committee investigating whether […]
(Columbus Dispatch) The former director of a local mosque admitted in federal court on Thursday to embezzling funds, defrauding public housing and filing for fraudulent COVID-19 assistance money. Ahmed A. Sh. Ahmed, 43, of Gahanna, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and submitting […]
(Morocco World News) Belgium might not expel Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen to France. French news outlet Le Figaro reported on October 4 that Iquioussen might not face extradition to France, describing his case as a “legal mess.” Belgian officials announced the arrest […]
(Morocco World News) Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne announced today that security services in the European country arrested French-Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen. AFP quoted the Belgian minister confirming the news. “I can confirm to you that he was arrested today by […]
(IPT) American Islamists rushed to offer tributes this week to a radical Egyptian cleric and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who had a long-established support for violent jihad and murdering Jews. The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a coalition of […]
(Anadolu) France announced it will close another mosque, accusing the imam of being radicalized, according to media reports Wednesday. The Interior Ministry has started the process of closing the Obernai Mosque in the Bas-Rhin area, according to French BFM TV and Le […]
(CNS) Following a botched attempt to deport a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated imam under a new “anti-separatist” law designed to counter radical Islamism, the French interior ministry is reportedly taking steps to expel others. Mediapart, an independent investigative online newspaper, reported that Interior Minister […]
(BBC) An imam who raped a schoolgirl in a mosque has been unconditionally discharged. Khandaker Rahman, 67, from Cwmdu, Swansea, was found to have committed the crimes by a jury at Swansea Crown Court in June, after a trial of facts, as […]
(Anadolu) The newly elected Muslim cleric (mufti) of the Turkish minority in the Xanthi region of Western Thrace in Greece said Monday that discriminatory practices are being carried out against the Turkish minority in the region. Mustafa Trampa, who was elected as […]
(Kathimerini) Greece’s Foreign Ministry has released a statement countering Turkish claims that it imposes appointed religious leaders, or muftis, on the Muslim minority in the northeastern province of Thrace instead of letting them elect their own. “The Turkish side is attempting, once […]
(Anadolu) In defiance of state intervention, Greece’s 150,000-strong Muslim Turkish minority is set to elect their new religious leader. The elections — in which two candidates, Mustafa Trampa and Mustafa Kamo, are running — will be held following Friday prayer in Xanthi […]
(Anadolu) Türkiye on Monday again urged Greece to respect the rights of the Turkish minority in its Western Thrace region and to stop denying recognition to elected Muslim clerics (muftis). Talking to Twitter, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Türkiye expects Greece […]
(Morocco World News) French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said during an interview with BFMTV that there are “other imams like Iquioussen,” adding that he is preparing a list of “preachers, presidents or agitators of associations” who could be expelled from France. The […]
(Morocco World News) Lucie Simon, Imam Hassan Iquioussen’s lawyer, on Friday confirmed that her client left the French territory in compliance with the ministerial expulsion decision without specifying his whereabouts. In an interview with BFM TV, Simon decried the “political show” carried […]
(Radio France) A European arrest warrant has been issued for French-born Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen, who has been on the run since Tuesday when French authorities approved his deportation. The preacher has been accused of hate speech and anti-Semitism. The Muslim preacher, […]
(Algemeiner) A Moroccan imam was on the run from the French authorities on Wednesday after being subjected to a court order expelling him from the country for antisemitic and misogynist incitement. A decision on Tuesday of the Council of State, the highest […]
(Reuters) France’s highest administrative court ruled on Tuesday that a France-born Moroccan imam whom the government had accused of promoting hate could be deported, a court ruling showed. That decision overturned a previous ruling by a Paris court suspending a deportation order […]
(Religion News) Imam Mohamed Magid, the executive religious director of a Northern Virginia mosque and a leader in interfaith relations, has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Magid said he received word from the White House that his […]
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