Netherlands: Municipality project to have immigrants accept homosexuality

Netherlands: Municipality project to have immigrants accept homosexuality

The municipality of Zwolle is working on making homosexuality a discussable topic in immigrant circles.  The municipality is working together with COC Zwolle (gay integration org) and five religious orgazniations for immigrants.

The aim is not for the muinciaplity to impose from above how the immigrant community will increase the discussability and acceptance.  The proposal by alderman Kenkhuis says that they should have their own movement.. and that this needs to happen patiently and carefully.  "Zwolle asks citizens to work together on living together".

The municipalty wants to increase knowledge of homosexuality in immigrant circles, and thereby have both immigrants and professionals in Zwolle aware of the problematics.  Professional should also expand their expertise so they could back immigrants with quesitons or problems with the issue.  The municipality sees a role here for key figures in the immigrant community, religious organizations, self-organiztaions and social organizations.

Zwolle aims especially at immigrant under 64, because this group is by far the biggest in the municpality, and the first generaly is hard to reach and is mostly not open to the topic.  The municipality wants to direct and boost the process and to perform an examplary role.  The leading points of the policy are to create a basis and professional roots, information-exchange and guidance, giving out information and bringing the issue up.  "Respect for each ther and dialog with each other are therefore central."

The municipality points out that it's a lengthy and sensitive process.  The process should proceed in small steps, they say.  The municipalti is planning the policy for the period 2009-2011, and will receive for it 75,000 euro from the state.  In 2011 there will be an evaluation and it would be decided whether to continue the project in 2012. 


Source: Binnenlands Bestuur (Dutch)

Italy: Militants might turn attention to domestic targets

Italy: Militants might turn attention to domestic targets


Islamist militants based in Italy unable to reach war zones might turn their attention to domestic targets, a parliamentary report on national security said Monday.


Anti-Western or anti-Italian sentiment may fuel attacks on "members of institutions or well-known figures seen as guilty of anti-Islam stances," the intelligence services told parliament in their annual report


The report cited a failed suicide bomb attack on a Carabinieri station in Milan in October as "the first jihadi attack on national territory".


Islamist cells which have only been engaged in logistical support or recruiting so far could make a "quality leap" and decide to attack, the report said.


"Isolated individuals or small cells could spring into action in a wholly autonomous way" like the 34-year-old Libyan who blew off his hand while trying to get a rudimentary bomb into the main Milan Carabinieri barracks on October 12, it said.



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Source: Life in Italy (English)

Bulgaria: Anti-Turkish posters mark independence day

Bulgaria: Anti-Turkish posters mark independence day


The Bulgarian town of Sliven awoke on March 3 showered with nationalistic and anti-Turkish posters from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, (VMRO) as abbreviated in Bulgarian.


While some of the posters congratulated Bulgaria on its national holiday, others were staunchly nationalistic and anti-Turkish, calling for a ban on Turkish integration into Europe.


March 3 sees Bulgaria celebrate its national day, marking the 132nd anniversary of its 1878 liberation from Ottoman rule.


VMRO was the name of a revolutionary national liberation movement during the Ottoman occupation in Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


Initially, its aim was to gain autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions in Ottoman Empire, but later it became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics.


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Source: Sophia Echo (English)

Manchester: Muslim women barred from flight for refusing 'naked' full-body scan

Manchester: Muslim women barred from flight for refusing 'naked' full-body scan


A Muslim woman was barred from boarding a flight to Pakistan after refusing to go through a new 'naked' full-body scanner at Manchester Airport on religious grounds.


Her companion also declined to be scanned for 'medical reasons'.


The women were travelling together to Islamabad when they were selected to pass through the controversial security screen after checking-in at terminal two at the airport.


Both told airport staff they were not willing to be scanned. They were warned they would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if they refused.


The pair decided they would rather forfeit their £400 tickets and left the airport with their luggage.


They are the first passengers to refuse to pass through one of the £80,000 scanners, introduced at Heathrow and Manchester airports on February 5.


The X-ray machines allow security staff to see a 'naked' image of passengers to show up hidden weapons and explosives.


Manchester Airport confirmed the passengers had refused to be scanned but said it had received no complaint from the women.


However, civil liberties campaigners say the incident could form the basis of a legal test case to challenge the use of the Rapiscan device in airports.


(...)


Councillor Afzal Khan, who was Manchester's first Asian lord mayor, said the vast majority of Muslims believed that any privacy concerns should be outweighed by ensuring they are safe when flying.


He said: 'Hundreds of Muslim passengers have gone through without a problem. While I appreciate people's concerns for privacy, these steps are necessary for our safety and security.'


A Manchester Airport spokesman said: 'Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal Two refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.


'In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.


'Body scanning is a big change for customers and we are aware that privacy concerns are on our customers's minds, which is why we have put strict procedures in place to reassure them that their privacy will be protected.'


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Source: Daily Mail (English)

Netherlands: Voting in headscarves against PVV

Netherlands: Voting in headscarves against PVV

Dutch municipal elections are today.  The PVV,  Geert Wilders' party is participating in the municipal elections in the Almere and the Hague.  In both places they're expected to win top places.


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A group of teachers and students in the Hague decided to protest Wilders' proposal to ban headscarves in municipal buildings and associations by urging voters, men and women, to wear headscarves when they come to vote.  The idea was started by several teachers and spread fast.

A spokesperson for the group stressed that this is not a demonstration but rather a 'courteous action', and that they're not demonstrating against Wilders personally, but against the idea of banning headscarves.

They say that headscarves are not exclusively Muslim and that Brigitte Bardot also wore headscarves in the 1960s.


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Hanneke Groenteman, a Dutch journalist, urges all women in Almere (where the PVV is participating) and in the Netherlands to wear a headscarf to the polling stations, in order to make a statement against the Party of Freedom. whom she says is about freedom only by name and actually hinders the freedom of others.  Her request was published on the Joop site, an opinion site of the VARA broadcaster.


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Jos Baijens, a Dutch-language teacher in Eindhoven, decided to wear a headscarf in protest of the PVV.  He hopes this would make people think about 'how ridiculous it is to want to ban headscarves in the Netherlands in the year 2010".  Baijens also said that we should build a tolerant, free and safe society, and Wilder's way of reaching that goal is not the way to do it.

He says he asked Muslim scholars who told him it's not a problem for him to walk about with a headscarf.

His school has meanwhile banned him from walking with a headscarf in school, saying that the school is not a platform for his political views.


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In other elections news:

1. A group of Muslims is calling on people not to vote for Ahmed Marcouch (Labor), the mayor of the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam.  Marcouch says the group is a radical one, and thinks it might be related to the voting advice of Hague imam Fawaz, who said that Muslims should vote for politicians who do not insult Muslims and who want to serve Islam.  The letter sent by the group warns Muslims of voting for 'wolves in sheep's clothing', regardless of whether the party has Moroccan, Turkish or Arab leaders.  The letter also says that while the PVV is openly against Islam, the Labor party is too, since it wants to change Islam.


2. An Islam Democrats candidate attacked another man after prayers at the As-Soenna mosque, during a fight about missing elections brochures.  The man suffered a broken hand.  The head of the party, Dilaver Delikaya, said that if this really happened, there would be consequences.

Sources: AD 1, 2, 3; Joop; Telegraaf (Dutch),  h/t NRP

BREAKING: Italy makes arrests for arms trafficking to Iran

BREAKING: Italy makes arrests for arms trafficking to Iran


Nine people, including some believed to belong to the Iranian secret services, have been arrested on suspicion of arms trafficking to Iran, Italian police said on Wednesday.


A statement said both Italians and Iranians had been arrested, including "some who are believed to belong to the Iranian secret services."


More details of the operation, dubbed "sniper," would be disclosed at a news conference later on Wednesday held by anti-terrorism prosecutor Armando Spataro.


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Source: Reuters (English)

Malmö: Libyan organization linked to Libyan intelligence agency

Malmö: Libyan organization linked to Libyan intelligence agency

The World Islamic Call Society is a Libyan missionary organization with branches all over the world.


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The Libyan organization World Islamic Call Society, which owns the grand mosque in Malmö, has, according to reports from the Netherlands, links to the Libyan security service. One of the people in the Islamic Center's board had been identified as an intelligence officer by the Dutch authorities.

Since the summer of 2008, the great mosque at Ögårdsparken in Malmö has been owned by the Libyan organization World Islamic Call Society. This was the solution for the Islamic Center after the fire in 2003 and economic problems during reconstruction.

"The evening when I took care of the banks, I could breath properly," saysBejzat Becirov, chairman of the Islamic Center.

Bejzat Becirov has a long relationship with the World Islamic Call Society, which gave the 1.4 million to purchase the land for the mosque from the Malmö municipality in 1983. In July 2008 the organization purchased the entire property for 5.2 million US dollars. For many years, three Libyans have served as deputies on the Islamic Center's board, but according to Becirov they don't participate in any meetings. The only one with whom he's had contact is Nowesri Ahmed Ali Hadi, and then just on religious issues.

"Since I wasn't so good on religious questions, it could be good to ask how people should do funerals etc," says Bejzat Becirov.

In the late 1990s Nowesri Ahmed Ali Hadi worked as an imam at the Omar al-Farouk mosque in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where the World Islamic Call Society also has an office. The Dutch security service AIVD was interested in the organisation and felt it was thwarting the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands.

In 2002, the AIVD wrote in a report that the World Islamic Call Society was a tool of the Libyan security service. In the fall of 2000, imam Hadi was deported from the Netherlands, following a report by the security service. Sveriges Radio got confirmation of this from Miranda Havinga of the AIVD. The deportation attracted a lot of attention in Utrecht, where Hadi was known as a liberal imam with good contacts in the municipality.

What Hadi did to be deported was never made public. According to Becirov the World Islamic Call Society never made any demands from the Islamic Center in Malmö. He doesn't think the reports from the Dutch security service are reliable.

"I am not obligated to check if this person is an intelligence person," says Bejzat Becirov.

Q: Did you know about this?

"What are you talking about? Do you think I have anything to do with such people?" I don't speculate."

According to Becirov, the World Islamic Call Society is an apolitical organization which is open for dialog with other religions. The organization is represented in UNESCO. It was established in the 1970s by Libyan leader Muammar Kadaffi and operates with state funds. It also has close ties to one of Kaddafi's sons: Saif al-Islam, who is identified as a possible successor to his father. The World Islamic Call Society is the biggest contributor to Saif al-Islam's charity fund, The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, according to the charity's latest annual report from 2007.

Saif al-Islam is considered to be the reason why Libya distanced itself from terrorism in recent years and paid compensation to the relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims. According to Libya expert Isabelle Werenfels, researcher at the German institute for Foreign and Secirty Policy in Berlin, the charity is an important tool for Saif al-Islam Kadaffi, who right now has not formal position in the country. She is not surprised by the reports that the World Islamic Call Society supports the charity.

"It shows how state resources are channeled. Libya is a small country where business interests and various organizations are linked through the same people," says Isabelle Werenfels.

But for Bejzat Becirov, the support from the World Islamic Call Society in Libya means security. For him it's an honest and stable organization that showed up when the Islamic Center needed help. He doesn't trust the reports that imam Hadi worked as an intelligence officer.

Becirov says he's not connected to Hadi and that Hadi could speak for himself.

Q: And is Säpo (the Swedish security service) came and confirmed this?

A: They I would like to have concrete evidence, says Bejzat Becirov.


Source: SR (Swedish)

Finland: Sharp increase in asylum requests

Finland: Sharp increase in asylum requests


In other news from Finland, authorities are investigating an online hate site calling for the murder of immigrants and politicians who support multiculturalism. The site is registered to an American Neo-Nazi. As Tundra Tabloids points out on his blog, National Socialists believe in socialism, which is, of course, a left-wing ideology. On the other hand, they are also strong believers in nationalism, which is a right-wing ideology.


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The Finnish Immigration Service reports a sharp increase in the number asylum seekers last year. Some 6,000 applications were received, representing a rise of 48 percent. Requests for residence permits meanwhile amounted to 20,790 last year, indicating a drop of nine percent.


However, the number of minors arriving alone declined by 20 percent. Some 560 children minors arrived in Finland alone.


Most asylum seekers came from Iraq and Somalia in line with the previous year’s trend. The number of applicants from Bulgaria increased ninefold in comparison to 2008.


The Finnish Immigration Service made a total of 4,335 decisions relating to asylum applications. Some 1,373 applicants were allowed to stay. So called “Dublin cases,” where the applicant is allowed to return to another EU country amounted to 1,488.


Approximately 21,000 people applied for a residence permit in Finland in 2009, a drop of nine percent over the previous year. Those with family connections rose while work-related applications dropped almost by half. Just over eight of ten applications were granted.


Finland granted citizenship last year to 10,311 persons, three-quarters of whom were from an ethnic Finnish background or the descendents of Finns.


A total of 4,417 foreign residents applied for Finnish citizenship, with Russians, Somalis and Iraqis topping the list. About half of the applications were successful.


Source: YLE (English)

Italy: Immigrants in nationwide strike

Italy: Immigrants in nationwide strike

Related story: France: 'Day Without Immigrants'


Foreign-born workers took to the streets around Italy on Monday for the country's first-ever
immigrant strike in a move to highlight their contribution to Italian society. Organizers said the main idea behind the strike, entitled "A Day Without Us" is to illustrate what a vital part of the economy immigrants have become by showing what a day without them would be like.


Protestors staged some 60 marches and rallies all over the country, many of them donning yellow shirts and armbands, the non-political and attention-grabbing colour chosen to represent the event. Perhaps the largest demonstration took place in Naples, where a procession of over 20,000 snaked through the historic center chanting: "We are the citizens of tomorrow! We are paying for your pensions!" One of the organizers, a representative from Italy's largest trade union CGIL, Jamal Qaddorah, said he was pleased with the turnout from the area's immigrant community.


"There are people here from dozens of different countries. Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Bangladesh just to name a few," he said.


Qaddorah added that "it's especially encouraging to see so many Italians out here wearing yellow".


The strike on Monday was inspired by a strike on the same day in France, which gave rise to similar demonstrations in Spain and Greece. In Italy, it was organized independently by a disparate group of promoters from labor union representatives and immigrants' right activists to foreign workers themselves, who used the internet to mobilize support.


(...)



Other events included an ethnic lunch for prison guards in Varese, an anti-immigrant graffiti wash-out in Trieste, a photo exhibition in Bologna and foreign-language lessons on Milan street corners.


One of the event's high points came 6:30pm (CET) when all 60 demonstrations let fly hundreds of yellow balloons.


While the immigrant strike was organized independently, a wide-range of organizations also participated including the opposition Democratic Party (PD), which staged a separate rally in Rome's Esquilino multiethnic neighbourhood.


(...)


Several members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party also spoke favourably of the initiative, such as junior chairman of the House Labour Committee, Giuliano Cazzola.


"Immigrants want us to understand not only that they exist but that they're indispensable to the economic and social life of this country". "That's absolutely true and we have to realize that there is no alternative to integration," he said.


(...)


National statistics bureau Istat estimates there are currently over 4.8 million immigrants living in Italy, nearly twice as many as there were in 2001, making up around 7.1% of the population and 8% of the labour force.


Two out of three immigrants are legally employed, some 67% against 58.7% of native-born Italians.


According to a another study Catholic charity Caritas, immigrants produce upwards of 10% of Italy's gross domestic product and contribute over 10.2 billion euros in income tax revenue.


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Source: ANSA (English)

Europe: 50-70% support burka ban

Europe: 50-70% support burka ban

In a couple of related stories:

1. The Swiss government confirmed it does not intend to impose a ban on burkas, as few women actually wear the burka, and it would be difficult to enforce (EN)

2. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders said a ban on headscarves for all public institutions in Almere and the Hague would be central to having the PVV join the municipal coalition.  Wilders stressed this ban will not affect crosses or Jewish skull caps because those are 'symbols of religions which belong to our own culture, are not, like the headscarves, a symbol of an oppressive totalitarian ideology". (EN, NL)  

It is interesting to note in the survey below that support for a burka ban drops significantly if it becomes a ban on all religious symbols.


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More than half of voters in four other major European states back a push by France's Nicolas Sarkozy to ban women from wearing the burka, according to an opinion poll for the Financial Times.


As Mr Sarkozy presses ahead with plans to ban the wearing of the burka in public places, the FT's latest Harris poll shows the move is not just strongly supported in France, but wins enthusiastic backing in the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.


The poll shows some 70 per cent of respondents in France said they supported plans to forbid the wearing of the garment which covers the female body from head to toe. There was similar sentiment in Spain and Italy, where 65 per cent and 63 per cent respectively favoured a ban


The strength of feeling in the UK and Germany may seem particularly surprising. Britain has a strong liberal tradition that respects an individual's right to full expression of religious views. But here, some 57 per cent of people still favoured a ban. In Germany, which is also reluctant to clamp down in minority rights, some 50 per cent favoured a ban.


"This poll shows that the number of people in France opposed to the burka is going up and that is the product of debate on burka and national identity," said Professor Patrick Weil, an expert on national identity at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. "But the figure is clearly going up in other countries in Europe like the UK as well, and that reflects the growing concern that there is about this issue in some parts of Europe."


(...)



In Europe, while opposition to the burka was strong, few respondents said they were prepared to support the ban as part of a wider drive towards secularism in their country.


Asked if they would support the burka ban if it were accompanied by a clampdown on wearing all religious icons such as the Christian crucifix and the Jewish cappel, only 22 per cent of French people said they supported such a move. In Britain, just 9 per cent of people said they would back such a move.


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Source: Financial Times (English), h/t Michael