(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 […]
(Swiss Info) A French-Tunisian citizen who used to work as a security guard at Geneva’s main mosque has been banned from Switzerland for ten years due to his alleged links to religious fundamentalists, a Swiss court ruled on Friday, confirming an earlier […]
(JNS) As many as 1,050 Hezbollah members and supporters reside in Germany, and the organization uses the country as a major hub for its activities, German daily Tagesspiegel reported last week, citing security sources. The Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group’s operations in Europe […]
(Swiss Info) A decade ago, a majority of Swiss voters backed a people’s initiative banning the building of minarets in the country. What has changed since? The people’s initiative was accepted by 57.5% of Swiss voters, even though most politicians, church leaders […]
(Deutsche Welle) A lawyer, activist, author and now imam, Seyran Ates has long lent a critical voice to debates about migration, women’s rights and religious freedom in Germany and beyond. Ates co-founded the “liberal” Ibn Ruschd-Goethe Mosque on the third floor of St. John’s Church near […]
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(Daily Sabah) Muslim communities in Germany criticized the government’s new project to train imams, accusing it of being a political initiative and a concerning development for the community, while noting that the new project violates the German constitution. Germany is launching an […]
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(Jewish Exponent) The Philadelphia Jewish community was roiled in May when a video surfaced of children at a local mosque and community center singing an anti-Semitic song in Arabic at an Umma Day celebration. Now, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has […]
(Anadolu) The Muslim call for prayer was recited Friday on loudspeakers for the first time in Amsterdam, according to a mosque official. The Blue Mosque had originally planned the Adhaan last Friday, but the cable of the audio system was cut by […]
(ANSAmed) French Secretary of State to the Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Friday that France has closed various businesses, schools, places of worship and associations in about 15 neighbourhoods in the country “hit by political Islamism and communitarianism.” “We are fighting against […]
(Deutsche Welle) The government has long struggled with foreign involvement when it comes to the education of imams who lead Muslim communities across Germany. Now, a new educational association, with start-up funding from Germany’s interior ministry, is set to launch on November 21. Even though some […]
(Religion News) A new report by an advocacy group accuses a Phoenix imam of sexual battery, child abuse, misappropriation of charitable funds and falsely presenting himself as a single man to pursue relationships with female congregants while having two concurrent concealed marriages. […]
(Hill) Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Monday denounced Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) as an “Islamophobe” after the longtime GOP lawmaker announced that he would not seek reelection in 2020. Omar, who earlier this year became one of the first Muslim women sworn […]
(NL Times) The leader of an Amsterdam mosque believes someone with bad intentions deliberately sliced an audio cable on the building’s rooftop to prevent the religious group’s first call-to-prayer from being amplified by an outdoor loudspeaker. The Blauw Moskee was set to […]
(Swiss Info) Around 130 imams are active in Switzerland, mostly Sunnis, and many of whom receive their religious training abroad in the Balkans, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, an in-depth university study has reported. Research by the Swiss Centre for Islam and […]
(Middle East Monitor) Renowned British singer Yusuf Islam last week invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend the opening ceremony of the Cambridge Mosque next month. The invitation came during a meeting between the two men in Istanbul, the Anadolu Agency […]
(AP) “Brothers and sisters,” the seminary instructor tells his class, don’t believe in God because of your parents’ beliefs but because “you know why God exists.” The challenge spurs a discussion about beliefs. But more than Imam Mohammad Qazwini’s interesting delivery, deep […]
(Age) It was a truth universally acknowledged that all young women traveling from Britain to the Islamic State needed to go shopping first, and in that strange winter when girls started to go missing, Westfield Stratford City, a sprawling mall in east […]
(Dutch News) Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema says she shares the “lack of enthusiasm” with the city council for plans by a mosque in Nieuw West to become the first in the Dutch capital to call worshippers to Friday prayers using loudspeakers. During […]
(Religion News) A decade after federal agents shot and killed a leading Detroit-area imam, Muslims in Michigan and around the country say they still have more questions than answers about the influential community leader’s death. Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah led Masjid Al-Haqq […]
(Religion News) Imam Omar Suleiman led a binational prayer Sunday (Oct. 27) at Friendship Park, a historic meeting place on the U.S.-Mexico border that overlooks the Pacific Ocean between San Diego and Tijuana. Participants believe it was the first time a formal […]
(Detroit Free Press) Ten years ago Monday, about 20 FBI agents in helmets and military gear swarmed into a warehouse in Dearborn, the red laser dots from their M4 rifles flickering around the room. A few minutes after 12 noon, one of the […]
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(CBC) Volunteers with the Canadian Muslim Vote non-profit are spending election day handing out free shawarmas at the Windsor Mosque. It’s as a way of rewarding voters, as well as a way of encouraging constituents who have yet to cast a ballot, […]
(AFP) Syrian Kurd Mohamed Zidik, 76, still buys his bread and baklavas from Turkish neighbours in Berlin, but he knows better than to expound on his views about Ankara’s offensive in his hometown. Since Turkish forces launched their assault on Kurds in […]
(Swiss Info) A Muslim preacher at a mosque near the city of Lucerne has been suspended over controversial statements about wife-beating. An umbrella group representing the local Muslim community told the media on Wednesday that the imam no longer worked at the […]
(AFP) French police on Monday detained five people linked to a radicalised employee at the Paris police headquarters who killed four colleagues in a knife attack earlier this month, sources said. Police staged raids at three locations in the northern suburbs of […]
(CBC) Microphones and lecterns were being set up in the Ottawa Mosque in Westboro Saturday as people gathered for the afternoon prayer. That’s because the house of worship was preparing to host its first federal election debate of the 2019 campaign, with […]
(CBC) The Canadian-Muslim Vote (TCMV) launched its Muslim Vote Weekend campaign on Friday, and Calgary’s Al Salam Centre took part. Featuring “Get Out the Vote” civic engagements and sermons in more than 100 mosques across Canada, the campaign is a partnership with the Muslim […]
(CBC) The Roman Catholic bishop of Trois-Rivières has announced that his diocese will postpone selling Saint-Jean-de-Brébeuf Church to its neighbour, the Islamic Cultural Centre of the Mauricie, after an outcry from some parishioners over the pending sale to the Muslim community. More than 100 parishioners […]
(Religion News) Imam Fateen Seifullah wants to transform Sin City into the City of Light. The imam, who leads Masjid As-Sabur, the oldest mosque in the Las Vegas area, is quick to clarify: “Not casino lights — I’m talking about noor,” he […]
(Boston Globe) The people who allegedly hectored Celtics center Enes Kanter outside a mosque over his political opposition to Turkey’s president didn’t commit a crime, Cambridge police have determined. In a statement Tuesday, police announced their findings in their review of the […]
(Swiss Info) The office of the attorney general of Lucerne has opened an investigation into an Iraqi imam at the Dar Asalam mosque in the town of Kriens. The man is alleged to have advised followers to beat their wives if they […]
(NL Times) The Blauwe Moskee in Amsterdam Nieuw-West wants to boost [its] weekly call to prayer — the Adhan — through loudspeakers. A few dozen mosques in the Netherlands already do so, but the Blauwe Moskee will be the first in Amsterdam. […]
(Brussels Times) Flanders wants to create an institution equivalent to Belgium’s intelligence and state security agency in order to oversee mosques established in its territory. Overseeing officially recognised mosques is a competency of Belgium’s State Security Service (VSSE in Dutch), managed by […]
(Boston Globe) New Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter said he was harassed outside of a Cambridge mosque Friday afternoon because of his political opposition to Turkey’s president. Kanter, a 6-11 Turkish basketball player signed by Boston this summer, posted a video to […]
(Columbia Missourian) A Missouri lawmaker had proposed legislation that would make it illegal for judges to consider Sharia law in their judicial decisions. Some, including representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the 2016 legislation was Islamophobic. At the time, Faizan […]
(Religion News) When San Diego’s city council voted to install 14,000 LED streetlights in 2016, the move was touted as a major step toward reducing the city’s carbon footprint and transforming the city into a hub for innovation. But since the vote, […]
(Detroit News) The U.S. government is suing the city of Troy, claiming the Oakland County community violated federal law for religious land use when it denied zoning approval for a mosque last year, officials said. “Zoning laws that treat mosques, churches, synagogues, […]
(NL Times) The Essalam Mosque in Rotterdam, the largest mosque in the Netherlands, decided to break ties with imam Said Abarkan over Salafist remarks he made in the past. The decision was made after extensive deliberation. “We’re parting ways in good consultation. […]
(AFP) Kneeling on prayer rugs in front of dozens of worshippers, Eva Janadin and Anne-Sophie Monsinay offered prayers and a sermon in an unusual Paris ceremony earlier this month, a scene they hope will soon become more common at mosques across France. […]
(NL Times) A majority of Dutch people are in favor of abolishing religious primary schools, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond. 59 percent of respondents said that all schools based on a religion in the Netherlands should be closed. Last […]
(Dutch News) The ruling VVD and opposition Labour party want to change an article in the Dutch constitution which gives people the right to set up a school on the basis of a religion. VVD parliamentarian Dennis Wiersma told Radio 1 on […]
(Dutch News) Children who go to mosque-run fundamentalist Muslim schools across the country are being taught people of different faiths deserve the death penalty and to turn their backs on the values of Dutch society, a joint investigation by current affairs programme […]
(Radio France) Several French Muslim women are trying to lead prayer sessions in France. They face major opposition, but on Saturday two French women who converted to Islam led the country’s first non-segregated prayers where wearing of the veil was not compulsory. Eva […]
(Barking and Dagenham Post) The trustees of a mosque where children were groomed for terrorism failed to properly monitor an Islamic State sympathiser then attempted to cover up what happened, the Charity Commission has found. All five have been disqualified for 10 […]
(Dutch News) Far-right anti-Islam group Pegida has been banned from holding any more demonstrations near mosques in Eindhoven following a spate of violent incidents. Mayor [John] Jorritsma has told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant that the organisation, which has just a handful of […]
(Jerusalem Post) Germany is investigating possible terrorism activities within a pro-Hezbollah center in the country, following an expose last week by the Jerusalem Post. However, a member’s declaration that “we are proud of terrorism” was not classified as targeting the federal republic. […]
(Jerusalem Post) The Hezbollah mosque in the German city of Münster posted a shocking video in December on its Facebook page, announcing it was proud of terrorism and its allegiance to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Washington-based […]
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