(AFP) Spanish judges on Wednesday began deliberating a verdict in the trial of three men accused of helping the jihadists behind the 2017 attacks in Barcelona and a nearby town that killed 16. The Islamic State (IS) group took responsibility for the […]
(AFP) The French minister for higher education has sparked a backlash from university heads after warning about the spread of “Islamo-leftism” in the country’s academic institutions. The term “Islamo-leftism” is often used in France by far-right politicians to discredit left-wing opponents they […]
(AFP) France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of a law to battle “Islamist separatism” that is billed by the government as a riposte to religious groups attempting to undermine the secular state. The draft legislation, which has been […]
(AFP) After months of controversy and 135 hours of parliamentary debate, MPs in France are set to approve a draft law to crack down on what has been termed “Islamist separatism” on Tuesday. AFP examines what is, and what isn’t, in the […]
(AFP) The families of two of the victims of November’s jihadist attack in Vienna city centre are suing the Austrian state for compensation because of official failings, their lawyers said Tuesday. Convicted Islamic State sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai killed four people before being […]
(AFP) Germany has charged five Tajik men with membership of an Islamic State terror cell that recruited members and planned attacks on German soil, prosecutors said Monday. A sixth member of the same cell, Ravsan B., was sentenced to seven years in […]
(AFP) French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to gain ground on far-right leader Marine Le Pen ahead of a possible duel in 2022 elections by seizing votes on the right, with a tough-talking interior minister and a bill cracking down on radical […]
(AFP) There was an “unprecedented escalation” of human rights violations against migrants in the Aegean Sea last year, a campaign group said Friday, accusing Greece and the EU’s border patrol agency Frontex of being behind a soaring number of illegal returns to […]
(AFP) German and Danish authorities announced Thursday they had arrested 14 people over alleged attack plots, including three Syrian brothers … accused of planning an attack with several kilogrammes of explosive chemicals. Denmark’s intelligence service PET announced a total of 14 people […]
(AFP) French far-right leader Marine Le Pen appeared in court Wednesday on charges she broke hate speech laws by tweeting pictures of Islamic State atrocities, a case she slammed as a politically motivated attempt to silence her. The trial comes as opinion […]
(AFP) President Joe Biden’s administration believes countries should repatriate jihadists and their families to counter the threat from the Islamic State group, an American diplomat told the United Nations on Wednesday. “The global threat from Isis will grow if the international community […]
(AFP) “We will try again,” Mohammad Amin Ibrahimi, a teacher from Kabul, says as he looks west towards the hills of neighbouring Croatia, a country he has tried to enter 30 times in his dream to bring his family to the European […]
(AFP) The Austrian justice ministry said Wednesday it would take into account fierce criticisms levelled by judges and the opposition at proposals for an anti-terror law formulated following a deadly jihadist terror attack. In the days after the convicted sympathiser of the […]
(AFP) The fallout from last November’s shootings on the streets of Vienna has shone a light on Europe’s dilemma in dealing with jihadists, particularly the continent’s struggles to deradicalise such individuals. An Austrian court had in 2019 already convicted Kujtim Fejzulai, the […]
(AFP) French far-right leader Marine Le Pen proposed a ban on Muslim headscarves in all public places on Friday, seeking to build on a record recent poll putting her almost neck-and-neck with President Emmanuel Macron. The hijab policy, which would be contested […]
(AFP) Born amid the horrors of war in Iraqi Kurdistan, Danish author Sara Omar now uses her voice to denounce violence inflicted on women in the name of reactionary Islam, a “calling” that has left her living under police protection. “I broke […]
(AFP) The United Nations appealed Wednesday for $100 million to help it boost support for refugees fleeing escalating conflicts and crises in Africa who embark on risky migration routes to Europe. The UN refugee agency voiced deep concern over swelling displacement from […]
(AFP) French authorities are looking at shutting down a far-right group that has staged several attempts to block migrants from entering the country by crossing the Alps or the Pyrenees mountains, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday. Darmanin, who has also led […]
(AFP) A clear majority of Swiss voters favour introducing a nationwide prohibition against wearing face-covering garments in public spaces, known as a “burqa ban,” a poll showed Friday. According to the Tamedia poll of 15,000 eligible voters, a full 63 percent of […]
(AFP) The head of France’s main Muslim organisation on Thursday slammed a “unilateral” move by three Islamic groups not to sign up to an anti-extremism charter championed by President Emmanuel Macron. Macron wants French Muslim groups to sign up to the charter […]
(AFP) Three Muslim groups refused on Wednesday to back an anti-extremism charter pushed by French officials following a spate of jihadist-inspired attacks, dealing a blow to a flagship initiative of President Emmanuel Macron’s government. The charter rejects “instrumentalising” Islam for political ends […]
(AFP) Syrian mother Dahouk Idriss says she can’t wait for US President-elect Joe Biden to be inaugurated Wednesday, so she can finally visit her son for the first time in four years. Biden has pledged that, on his first day in office, […]
(AFP) President Emmanuel Macron praised French Muslim leaders on Monday after they agreed on a “charter of principles” aimed at combatting sectarianism and radicalised teachings blamed for a surge in jihadist attacks in France in recent years. The charter offers “a clarification […]
(AFP) France’s Muslim federations agreed Sunday on a “charter of principles” requested by President Emmanuel Macron in his bid to eradicate sectarianism and extremism. Macron urged the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) to devise the charter in November, after the […]
(AFP) France said on Wednesday it had brought home seven children of French jihadists from northeast Syria, continuing a repatriation process begun after the toppling of the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. The children, aged between two and 11 and “particularly vulnerable,” were […]
(AFP) An Italian man of Turkish origin who claimed to have been tasked with killing public figures in Austria has been expelled from the country, his lawyer said Tuesday. Feyyaz Ozturk, 53, turned himself in to the Austrian intelligence services last year. […]
(AFP) A court in Spain on Monday remanded in custody three suspected members of Islamic State arrested last week in Barcelona, including an Algerian man who had fought for the Islamist group in Iraq. Spanish authorities began their investigation after becoming aware […]
(AFP) The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Tuesday called on Bosnia to assume responsibility for hundreds of Bosnian migrants left sleeping out in the cold after their camp burned down. In a damning summary of the crisis there, the EU’s High […]
(AFP) Nearly 2,200 migrants died trying to reach Spain by sea this year, the vast majority of them on their way to the Canary Islands, a migrant rights group said Tuesday. [Migrant] arrivals in the archipelago have increased this year as they […]
(AFP) Austria’s intelligence agencies missed several chances to spot the danger posed by a jihadist [gunman] who launched a deadly attack in Vienna in November, an official report said on Wednesday. The report is the first from a government commission assessing how […]
(AFP) French authorities have charged and detained four Pakistanis suspected of links to a meat cleaver attack by a compatriot outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly that wounded two people, the national counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office said Friday. The four […]
(AFP) A French court on Thursday jailed for life a Moroccan man who planned a terror attack on a Paris-bound international train in 2015 but was thwarted by passengers including off-duty US soldiers. The Paris court convicted Ayoub El Khazzani, now 31, […]
(AFP) US Muslim groups pleaded Thursday for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to speak out on China’s mass incarceration of Uighurs, accusing the global body of abetting what some described as genocide. The OIC consists of 57 Muslim-majority nations and frequently takes […]
(AFP) After a three-day boat trip from Western Sahara, Mohceine Ait Lamadane reached the Canaries and from there travelled to Italy, taking advantage of a system swamped by arrivals and slowed by the coronavirus. “I paid 2,000 euros ($2,430) for the crossing,” […]
(AFP) The trial of 20 people charged over the November 13, 2015, jihadist attacks in Paris that were France’s deadliest peacetime atrocity will get underway in late 2021, sources close to the case and prosecutors said on Friday. The night of carnage […]
(AFP) Germany said Friday it would allow deportation of Syrians to their war-ravaged homeland from 2021 if they are deemed a security risk, five years after a massive refugee influx. The EU’s biggest economic power and most populous member allowed in hundreds […]
(AFP) Austria’s constitutional court on Friday struck down a law introduced last year which banned the headscarf in primary schools, saying the measure was unconstitutional and discriminatory. In a statement explaining the decision, the court said the law “contravened the principle of […]
(AFP) Europe’s latest jihadist attacks may have targeted France and Austria, but Spain, like the rest of the continent, remains within the sights of extremists and the threat level is still “severe,” experts say. The issue has returned to the headlines in […]
(AFP) The US envoy on international religious freedom on Tuesday voiced concern about France, warning against “heavy-handed” measures as President Emmanuel Macron targets radical Islam. “I am concerned, obviously, for what’s happening in France,” Ambassador Sam Brownback told reporters when asked about […]
(AFP) The chief suspect in the fatal stabbings of three people in a church in the French city of Nice was charged on Monday with their murder, anti-terrorism prosecutors said. Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian national, was shot and seriously injured by […]
(AFP) A suspect in a 1982 attack on a Jewish neighbourhood in Paris that killed six people was on Saturday charged and remanded in custody by French authorities after his extradition from Norway, judicial sources said. Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed was charged […]
(AFP) A suspect in a deadly 1982 attack at a Jewish neighbourhood in Paris arrived in France late Friday after being extradited from Norway, airport officials said. Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, 62, landed at around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) at Paris’ Charles […]
(AFP) A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on January 22 in the trial of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to bomb an exiled opposition group’s rally, his lawyer told AFP. Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces […]
(AFP) A Hungarian court sentenced a Syrian man to life imprisonment Thursday for terrorism and crimes against humanity including the beheading of an imam in Syria in 2015. The man was a commander of the Islamic State group, and must spend at […]
(AFP) French authorities will inspect dozens of mosques and prayer halls suspected of radical teachings starting Thursday as part of a crackdown on Islamist extremists following a spate of attacks, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. Darmanin told RTL radio that if any […]
(AFP) Sixty-four migrants including a pregnant woman and several children were rescued in the English Channel in the past 24 hours as they were seeking to reach Britain aboard rickety vessels, French maritime authorities said Sunday. A first group of 45 migrants […]
(AFP) An Iranian diplomat went on trial in Belgium on Friday accused of plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran. Assadollah Assadi, formerly based in Vienna, faces a 20-year prison term […]
(AFP) Four teenage students have been charged in France over the killing of Samuel Paty, including three for allegedly pointing out the teacher to his murderer, a judical source said Thursday. Three other pupils were charged with complicity earlier this month over […]
(AFP) In a normal year, it would be high tourist season for the Canary Islands, but a huge influx of migrants has given the archipelago “a bad image,” bar owner Miguel Gonzalez grumbles. With migrant reception centres completely swamped after the arrival […]
(AFP) The Moroccan gunman on trial for an attempted terror attack on a Paris-bound train five years ago said Wednesday he had aimed at the heads of American soldiers but could not shoot. On August 21, 2015, after drinking a coffee at […]
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