Government & Politics

Inside Bob Casey’s troubling relationship with Erdogan’s best friend in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania Murat Güzel, a prolific Democratic donor, credits Bob Casey with helping him get a start in politics. Casey’s wife, Terese, recently thanked Güzel for a $100,000 donation to another Pennsylvania committee.

(Free Beacon) Murat Güzel is one of Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s closest allies in the United States. A former board member of the Turkish American National Steering Committee alongside Erdogan’s cousin, Halil Mutlu, the Turkish-born Pennsylvania businessman has lobbied lawmakers on […]

Government & Politics

Germany: ‘DAVA’ party woos voters with Turkish roots Fighting Islamophobia and strengthening 'traditional values' are core issues in the election program with which DAVA reaches out to Muslim migrants in Germany. Is Turkish President Recep Erdogan behind the movement?

(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s newly founded “Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening” (DAVA) is currently a voters’ association, but it intends to run as a party in the European elections on June 9. This announcement in January triggered a heated debate in Germany, […]

Citizenship

Germany: CDU fears Islamist bloc as millions of Turkish migrants to be granted voting rights Progressive plans to naturalise millions of migrants, many of them Turkish, [are] unsettling German conservatives as Turkey continues its collision course with the West.

(European Conservative) New German citizenship laws that expand voting rights to up to 2.5 million recent migrants are unnerving even the usually complacent CDU, with one conservative lawmaker airing fears that the new arrangement could enable a potential Islamist bloc to attain […]

Demonstrations

MOT: Russia planned Islamophobic campaigns in Finland, Sweden to delay Nato membership The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) confirms that they were aware of the Russian intelligence service's plans to incite such demonstrations.

(Yle) Russia made plans to disrupt Finland and Sweden’s accession to joining Nato, according to a secret intelligence report obtained by an Yle MOT investigation. The report found that a Russian intelligence service planned to organise disruption campaigns disguised as demonstrations before […]

Academics & Education

Germany’s first cohort of locally trained imams graduates Germany set up its own training school for imams due to the large number of foreign-trained Islamic religious leaders. The issue now is the lack of jobs for the graduates.

(Deutsche Welle) Twenty-four Muslims from across Germany formally passed their imam training at the country’s new Islamkolleg Deutschland in the northwestern city of Osnabrück on Saturday. The graduates, who included men and women, received their first certificate of completion after attending a two-year part-time course. […]

Government & Politics

Athens wants to revamp EU-Turkey migrant deal Greek interior minister says now is time to ‘reenergize, rejuvenate and expand’ pact that returns migrants to Turkey.

(Politico) Athens wants to expand a migration deal with Turkey, Greek Interior Minister Dimitrios Kairidis said. The European Union reached the contentious agreement with Turkey at the peak of the migration crisis in March 2016. It foresaw that all undocumented migrants arriving […]

Demonstrations

Turkish president receives members of US Muslim council in Ankara President Erdogan asks delegation to tell US Congress, other political circles about dangers of Islamophobia during meeting at Presidential Complex

(Anadolu) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that attacks on the Quran cannot be “defended with the excuse of freedom of expression” and that such acts “target social peace and stability” during talks with a delegation from the US Council of […]

Government & Politics

Germany sees surge in Turkish asylum seekers A rising number of educated Turkish citizens who oppose the government are heading to Germany. Many are seeking asylum, but German authorities are less inclined to grant it.

(Deutsche Welle) “Living in fear and uncertainty every day, expecting the police to come back and snatch us from our beds, take us to the station and torture us … we couldn’t stand it anymore. After the death of my father, we […]

Government & Politics

US Muslim community congratulates Turkish President Erdogan on election victory Ankara’s envoy to Washington awarded for outstanding community services during Islamic Circle of North America convention

(Anadolu) At a major Muslim American gathering, the Muslim community in the US congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his historic reelection to the nation’s presidency. Hasan Murat Mercan, Ankara’s ambassador to Washington, was invited to the stage on Sunday at […]