Greece: Police demolish illegal immigrant camp

Greece: Police demolish illegal immigrant camp


Greek riot police have led an operation to demolish a makeshift camp housing illegal immigrants in the western port city of Patras.


The camp was used by migrants hoping to smuggle themselves onto ships bound for Italy and Western Europe.


Its closure is more proof of Greece's tougher stance on illegal immigration.


The camp had been a source of tension with many Greeks who regarded it as a major eyesore for themselves and for tourists arriving from Italy.


They levelled scores of cardboard and plastic hovels.


Only a makeshift mosque and a tent used by volunteer doctors were left untouched.


The camp in Patras had been in existence in some form or another for 13 years.


A few months ago, it accommodated about 1,800 people, mainly from Afghanistan.


But that number had dwindled to about 100 following large-scale arrests and also because the port authorities had made it nearly impossible to get on board ferries to Italy.


The early morning operation was described by Red Cross officials in Patras as "terrorising" the migrants.


One worker said it was designed to send a message to all illegal immigrants that they had no future in Greece.


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Source: BBC (English)

Scotland: Ministers considering Sharia financing for social housing

Scotland: Ministers considering Sharia financing for social housing


Ministers are considering asking Muslim investors to help fund social housing in Scotland to ease pressure on the government's budget.


The Islamic Finance Council, which promotes the use of finance from Muslim sources in Scotland, is to meet Alex Neil, the housing minister, to discuss how Muslim wealth could be used to develop shared-ownership homes, in accordance with the principles of sharia — Islamic law.


The partnership could potentially save the Scottish government millions of pounds at a time when its budget is under unprecedented pressure because of the recession, and lead to a rise in the availability of affordable homes.


Shelter Scotland, the housing charity, claimed earlier this month that the number of council and housing-association homes for rent in Scotland has fallen to the lowest level for 50 years. There are about 599,000 socially rented properties across the country — 18% fewer than in 1998 and the lowest figure since 1959.


Under the Scottish government proposals, Muslim financiers would fund new properties with backing from the government. Under sharia, Muslims are forbidden from charging usury — or interest rates — in their financial dealings, so householders with a stake in properties would pay a rent set at a level similar to mortgage rates.


Unlike those with conventional British mortgages, householders would be largely insulated from negative equity.


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Source: Times Online (English)

France: March for Mohamed

France: March for Mohamed

In an atmosphere of anger, about 300 people marched in Firminy (France) on Saturday towards the police station where Benmouna Mohamed, a young resident of the Saint-Etienne suburb was found hanged in his cell.  The march went past the building where the 21-year old lived with his parents, who had called to cancel the demonstration for fear of incidents.

The participants, including women and children, marched behind a banner saying: 'in memory of Mohamed. we want the truth'.  But soon several dozen young men in their twenties took over at the head of the procession, shouting 'Allah Akhbar', 'Allah is the only god and Mohamed is his prophet' and 'justice for Mohamed'.  The march took place without incidents.

Myrian, the victim's aunt, was in the crowd.  She doesn't believe the theory of Mohamed Benmouna's suicide and says that he isn't suicidal.  She says they're marching so as not to forget him and because they want to mourn in peace.  Therefore they should stop saying that it was suicide, it is not true.   An uncle adds that they have confidence in justice but they want to see it happen.

At about 4pm, the march ended at the Chambon-Feugerolles police station, where the tragedy which led to three nights of violence occurred.  About twenty relatives were allowed to lay two bouquets of flowers.  The hostile crowd was held at a distance by the riot police.  On Friday the prosecution opened an investigation against unknowns for manslaughter to determine whether there was a lack of supervision during Mohamed Benmouna's detention.

Source: Le Monde (French)

See also: France: Rioting after man dies in police custody

Brussels: Journalist accuses politicians of playing the ethnic card

Brussels: Journalist accuses politicians of playing the ethnic card

A president of a mosque who implicitly asks his believers to vote for Brussels Secretary of State Emir Kir (PS); a CdH candidate of Turkish origin upset of being preceded on his party list by 'three Moroccans and a Black'; communitarian election leaflets and SMS messages: independent journalist Mehmet Koksal (parlamentro.com) was never afraid to dig into topics which get people upset, and now he delivers a critical study of the campaign of immigrant candidates in to the past Brussels elections.

Koksal says that the PS (Socialist Party) and CdH (Humanist Democratic Centre) are the parties who played the ethnic card the most.  A very profitable strategy: without this patronage the PS doesn't get much in the capital.  The CdH, however, can rely not only on the Muslim vote, but also on the Black evangelicals, while the MR (Reformist Movement ) notably targets the Zionist-Jewish vote.

Shopkeepers, religious leaders and presidents of associations and sports clubs were recruited, more because they could get votes in their communities than due to shared values with the party.  Those politicians who can exercise leverage for the community got excellent electoral results, while those who mostly favored the general interest in the past parliament, were not reelected.

The backlash to the accusations was swift.  The journalist was told Friday morning that a PS candidate for the June 7 regional elections, Mohammed Errazi, is suing him for defamation.  It isn't the first time that a socialist drags the journalist to court.

In his book 'Bruxelles 2009, l'autre campagne' (Brussles 2009, the other campaign), Mehmet Koksal recounts a conversation between Mohammed Errazi and Ahmed El Khannouss (cdH) on March 25 in the presence of Joseph Amisi Yemba (PS, ex-MR), in which Errazi  complained about what the 'bastards' of his party did and that they would now continue to work for the Whites on the list.  Koksal points out that this was published on his site already on March 27, 2009, and that it was not refuted so far.  Koksal says that Mohammed Errazi wasn't voted in and that he might be suing due to this disappointment.  The case will be heard November 10.

In 2005 Emir Kir, Secretary of State for Public Cleanliness, sued Mehmet Koksal for calling him a lyer and (Armenian) genocide denier in a 2003 article.  The case was dismissed by the court.


Sources: Le Vif , RTL Info (French), h/t le blog laiciste

Copenhagen: Bus company hires minority women to curb unruliness

Copenhagen: Bus company hires minority women to curb unruliness


Putting minority women behind the wheel on the city's busiest bus route has meant fewer disruptive incidents


City bus operator Netbus is finding that 'manning' its 42 busses on the heavily travelled 5A route with minority women is helping curb unruly passenger behaviour and attracting more women to the job.


The 5A, which cuts through the middle of the ethnically diverse Nørrebro district, transports 65,000 people every day, making it northern Europe's busiest bus route.


Netbus figures show that in the first year the company operated the route there were 16 reported instances of a driver feeling threatened by passengers. But none of them involved the route's two female minority drivers.


Based on the positive results and feedback about the Brazilian and Albanian natives, Netbus has just hired a third female driver with immigrant roots, this time from Pakistan.


Peter Sieland, who teaches and instructs new bus drivers, told Berlingske Tidende newspaper he believes the women's presence has a calming effect on the route's more boisterous passengers – in particular, young men from minority ethnic groups.


'I think they respect women drivers more,' said Sieland. 'Also, women tend to drive safer, are good at resolving conflict and have an almost built-in service gene, while men often have a need to show they are captain of the bus.'


The newest of the three 5A women, Saiqa Mehmooda, used to be a teacher. As a practicing Muslim she wears a headscarf when she works, and she says young Muslim men show her more respect because of it.


'When I taught, I noticed the boys would maybe cuss and talk back to the other teachers,' she said. 'But when I scolded them they suddenly became nice and charming. I think it's the same in the bus.'


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Source: Copenhagen Post (English)

Germany: Prayers for murder victim

Germany: Prayers for murder victim


Muslims across Germany prayed on Friday for a pregnant Egyptian woman murdered in Dresden last week, a killing that provoked outrage and anti-German sentiment in her home country.


Marwa al-Sherbini was stabbed at least 18 times in a courtroom in Dresden on July 1 in front of her husband and three-year-old son by a Russian-born German man who has since been charged with her murder.


With Berlin under fire for a slow reaction to the killing, the German government's integration tsar Maria Boehmer visited his bedside on Friday, a day ahead of a planned memorial ceremony outside Dresden city hall.


Dubbed the "veil murder" by Muslim groups, the killing drew thousands of mourners to her funeral on Monday in Alexandria, with Egypt's top cleric declaring her a "martyr" and demanding the maximum penalty for the attacker.


The 31-year-old's husband, geneticist Elwi Ali Okaz, is in a critical condition in hospital after also being stabbed by the assailant and shot in the leg by confused police who took him for the attacker.


Accompanied by Egypt's ambassador to Germany and the president of the German-Arab Association, Boehmer said: "There is no place for racist or religious violence in Germany."


"The German government sets great store by integration. We see variety as an opportunity ... Germany is not anti-Islam," she added.


Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, meanwhile, wrote a letter to his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit expressing his condolences to the woman's family.


"We want to make sure that everyone in Germany feels safe, whatever their origin, their nationality or their religion. Racism and Islamaphobia have no place in Germany," Steinmeier said.


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Source: The Local (English)

Belgium: Schools may not ban veils for teachers (2)

Belgium: Schools may not ban veils for teachers (2)


Two years ago the Council of State got to a similar decision, in what seems to me to be the same case.

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Belgium's highest administrative court has overturned the sacking of a Muslim woman teacher by two schools because she wore a headscarf, national press reported Friday.


The State Council found that the two schools had abused their powers by firing the woman, who wore the headscarf in the school grounds but not in the classroom, reported the dailies De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws.


The woman was teaching Islam temporarily at two suburban Dutch-language schools in the capital Brussels in 2005 and 2006, but she refused to take off her headscarf after the schools' management asked her to do so.


The tribunal said the schools had not shown "that wearing the headscarf outside of the classroom would have a negative effect on the way the teacher was doing her work," the newspapers said.


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Source: Expatica (English)

See also:
* Brussels: Teachers fired for wearing veil
* Belgium: Schools may not ban veils

France: Rioting after man dies in police custody

France: Rioting after man dies in police custody


Youths in the southeastern French town of Firminy burned cars and destroyed a social centre on Wednesday night as protests over the death in police custody of a young man continued for a second night.


Around 200 riot police were deployed into the early hours on Thursday, with a helicopter circling overhead as groups of young people set fire to rubbish bins before moving on to torch cars and the social centre.


The protests followed the death on Wednesday of Mohamed Benmouna, a local man arrested for attempted extortion, who fell into a coma after what police said was a suicide attempt and died several hours later.


Benmouna's family have expressed scepticism over the explanation by police who said he had used cords from a mattress to hang himself.


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According to the state prosecutor in Saint-Etienne, an examination of the body revealed no traces of violence.  The mother of the 21- year old man does not believe in the suicide theory.  The Benmouna family lodged a complaint and asked people to continue to remain calm.


Sources: Reuters (English), Europe1 (French)

Denmark: Immigrant foster families last to get children

Denmark: Immigrant foster families last to get children

It seems to me this article is mixing up two different issues:
1. Should a Danish child be placed for foster care in a non-Danish family, if there are Danish families available? 
2. Are there enough immigrant foster families to care for immigrant children?  Should an immigrant child be placed in a Danish family, if there are immigrant families available? 


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Foster parents of immigrant background must wait longer to get a child.  The experience of the Copenhagen municipality shows that foreign foster families are often last in line, because the case handlers are not prepared to place Danish children with families of another ethnic or religious background.

This happens despite the fact that the families were assessed and approved just like all other foster families and said they are also interested in taking Danish children and are prepared to make special consideration for the child's Danish culture.

Mette Larsen, anthropologist and project head at the Knowledge Center for Foster Care, says that these are families who speak fluent Danish and who besides being able to offer a safe environment are ready that the Danish children will not go along, for example, to the mosque, or participate in Koran education.  Yet, they wait often longer to get a child than ethnic Danish families.

She recently completed a study of ethnic foster children and families in Copenhagen.

Municipalities all over the country have had a shortage of foster families for children of an ethnic minority background in recent years.  This also means that more foreign children than Danish are placed in institutions rather than foster families.

Therefore the board of Social Services is now launching a national campaign to recruit more foster families - not least among families of foreign background.

The question is whether the Danish system is ready to accept the help of ethnic foster parents, says Mette Larsen.

She says that before we start a large-scale recruitment drive and ask people to offer their families, we should look at our own practices and consider whether we are ready to accept their help.  Otherwise we risk them coming without being given tasks.

Ethnic families want to take in foster children.  An intensive informative campaign in Copenhagen showed that the number of foster families of foreign background has grown explosively in just six years.

In 2002 only two families of foreign background were approved - today the municipality approved 22 foster families of non-Western background and 15 families of a different Western background.

Interview with older foster children shows, at the same time, that the ethnicity of foster families is not crucial for most, as long as the child has the opportunity to keep to his mother tongue.

Metter Larsen says that for years children of a different ethnic minority background were placed by ethnic Danish families, though they couldn't support the children in keeping their mother tongue and thereby having contacts with their biological family.  This isn't the case here.  Yet we hesitate when it comes to ethnic Danish children.

Source: Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish)

See also:
* Denmark: Problem finding foster families
* Copenhagen: 90% of children removed from home are immigrants

Bordeaux: Imam attacked after burka debate

Bordeaux: Imam attacked after burka debate


Mahmoud Doua was attacked this past Sunday evening, while exiting a mosque in the Bordeaux suburb of Talence (France).  After prayer two men came up to him and started speaking to him about his appearance on the "Mots croisés" show.  They accused him of not defending the Muslims, Doua says, and then he found himself on the ground.  Doua was very lightly injured and was unable to work for a day, but the attack caused a great psychological shock to the victim and the local Muslim community.

It is the first time that radical Muslims got to this point.  Paradoxically, Mahmoud Doua didn't defend a 'legalistic' and repressive position.  The part-time lecturer of anthropology of the Arab-Muslim world at the University of Bordeaux says that legislation on this issue is not educational and that if there's oppression, one should turn to the social services.  In addition there's a risk of stigmatizing the Muslim community.  Finally, the spirit of secularism (laicite) according got its founders, such as Jaures and Brians, is against a state regulating religious visibility.  The arguments he used in the debate with minister Fadela Amara and Elisabeth Badinter were considered too open by some people.

Mahmoud Doua, who teaches and preaches on Fridays on the Cenon mosque, says that these are youth he knows, who live in the same district as he does.  For them, the discussion was too Republican. 

There are estimated to be 50 Salafists in Bordeaux (department of Gironde). Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Bordeaux mosque and imam of the Association of Muslims in Gironde (AMG), says that they're young, without a point of reference, working by the dynamics of a gang.  He says what happened was serious but unfortunately predictable.  An investigation is underway to identify the two young men.  Mahmoud Doua knows their first names.  After some hesitation, he filed a complaint and the AMG is a civil party in the case.  He says he has no anger or hatred, but he wants the law to be enforced.  Islam has to integrate into the laws of the republic. 

Jawad Rhaouti, president of AMG, concludes that as Badinter said during the debate, the Muslim community is the first victim of this issue.  Sultana, Mahmoud Doua's wife is probably the person most upset.  She says, with some humor, that she wants to be a widow, but not for the burka, and adds that she is concerned.  On Friday her husband would go to the Cenon mosque to preach, as usual.

Source: Sud Ouest (French)