Islam in Europe

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

UK: Christianity gets less sensitive treatment than other religions admits BBC chief

UK: Christianity gets less sensitive treatment than other religions admits BBC chief

Via the Daily Mail:

BBC director-general Mark Thompson has claimed Christianity is treated with far less sensitivity than other religions because it is ‘pretty broad shouldered’.

He suggested other faiths have a ‘very close identity with ethnic minorities’, and were therefore covered in a far more careful way by broadcasters.

But he also revealed that producers had to consider the possibilities of ‘violent threats’ instead of polite complaints if they pushed ahead with certain types of satire.

Mr Thompson said: ‘Without question, “I complain in the strongest possible terms”, is different from, “I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write”. This definitely raises the stakes.’
(source)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Vienna: Boys Choir Backs Integration Through Music

Vienna: Boys Choir Backs Integration Through Music

Via the Austrian Times:

Immigrant children in Austria are being given singing lessons organised by the Vienna Boys choir as part of a project to encourage integration through music.

The idea that started as a pilot scheme three years ago has now grown so popular that more than 600 children across the capital Vienna are now getting free singing lessons.
(source)

Paris: Father tries to set 23-year-old daughter alight for being too emancipated

Paris: Father tries to set 23-year-old daughter alight for being too emancipated

Via the Local (h/t Jihad Watch):

A man was being held by police on Monday after allegedly trying to set fire to his grown-up daughter in central Paris.

Le Parisien newspaper reported that the man sprayed teargas in the young woman's face and then covered her in petrol on Saturday evening.

The father was apparently annoyed that the woman planned to go out with a group of friends that evening and considered her "too emancipated".

The newspaper quoted a source describing him as a "Muslim fundamentalist."
(source)

Monday, February 27, 2012

Netherlands: Council of state criticises amnesty plan for child refugees

Netherlands: Council of state criticises amnesty plan for child refugees

Via DutchNews:

Draft legislation to give an automatic right to stay in the Netherlands to refugee children who have lived here for at least eight years is unnecessary, unfocused and unfair, according to the Council of State.

(...)

In addition, the legislation could encourage families to drag out legal procedures until a child had been in the country for eight years, and it would be unfair on families who have left, Nos television quotes the council as saying.
(source)

Turkey: Parliamentary Speaker warns against xenophobia in Europe

Sweden: 30 Swedes on Jihad in Somalia

Sweden: 30 Swedes on Jihad in Somalia

Swedish newspaper DN reports that the Swedish security service Säpo is closely monitoring the situation in Sweden, now that the Somali al-Shabaab has officially joined al-Qaeda.

About 30 Swedes have gone to Somalia for Jihad or Jihad training. Säpo says the trend is increasing and that a a dozen others have gone to other conflict areas. The most famous al-Shabaab site is run from Sweden by a Muslim convert from Gothenburg.

Sweden: Children of immigrant parents more likely to develop autism with intellectual disability

Sweden: Children of immigrant parents more likely to develop autism with intellectual disability

Via News Medical:

The study, which is published in the scientific periodical The British Journal of Psychiatry shows that children of immigrant parents, particularly from countries of low human development, are disproportionately likely to develop autism with intellectual disability, a connection that appears to be related to the timing of migration rather than complications in childbirth. Children, whose mothers migrated just before or during pregnancy, ran the highest risk of all.
(source)