Paris: Pro-burqa supporters stop debate

Paris: Pro-burqa supporters stop debate


A debate organised by "Ni putes ni soumises", a French NGO, Tuesday night in Paris, on the question of the full Islamic veil ended in an exchange of insults and blows. Meanwhile, meeting in Paris Wednesday, French ministers paved the way for a draft law that seeks to ban the wearing of the burqa in France.

French NGO “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” had planned a public debate on the eve of the presentation of the draft law that seeks a complete ban on the burqa, the full Islamic veil. However, pro-burqa supporters, who the police have failed to identify, violently thwarted the NGO’s efforts.

Fiercely opposed to the wearing of the burqa, Ni Putes Ni Soumises intended to use the opportunity to develop a common front against the wearing of the veil in France.

The one hundred plus people who gathered at the debate premises, — a primary school in Montreuil a Parisian suburb,— was made up of diverse groups including women, feminists, politicians, Islamists, some women wearing the simple veil and some wearing the full veil.



The debate, which began in a tense atmosphere, was allegedly disrupted by members of Sheikh Yassin, a pro-Palestinian group, forcing the organizers to call for police intervention, as insults turned into fistfights. The rioters had already fled upon the arrival of the police.

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Manuel Valls, member of the French Socialist Party (PS) and supporter of the ban on the burqa, was among those present when the riots broke out. According to him, instead of dissuading him, the incident has only given impetus to his belief that the law should be established. "I feel that this case comes to try the Republic and its representatives and I for one won’t be intimidated”, he said.

"I think those who had doubts before tonight’s debate understood, as they left (the meeting), the need for a law that says enough to those who exploit Islam and reduce women to silence," added Sihem Habchi, President of Ni Putes Ni Soumises.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: AFRIK.com (English), h/t NRP

Kosovo: Danish army attacked for favoring Albanians

Kosovo: Danish army attacked for favoring Albanians


A Danish army office in the Serbian part of Kosovo was attacked, and a window smashed.  There were no injures. 

The house is used by the Danish army as a base for patrols.  The Kosovo police say they found a letter outside the house, threatening the Danes with revenge for favoring the Albanians.

Source: Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish)

Finland: Town backpedals on headscarf ban

Finland: Town backpedals on headscarf ban


Raasepori's school district has backpedalled on an outright ban on head-scarves for female students. The city softened its stand in the face of one family's fight to preserve its daughter's right to cover her head in public.

Some time ago, the city quietly issued guidelines that forbade the use of visible religious symbols during school hours. The restriction is not based in Finnish law and according to many critics is unconstitutional. Raasepori is the only Finnish school district to issue such restrictions.

Raasepori school officials say that immigrants accepted the guideline when it was issued.

Things changed when one Iraqi family announced that they would not allow their daughter to attend school unless the ban was revoked.

In the face of opposition, Raasepori's officials watered down the guideline, announcing on Tuesday that the use of headscarves would no longer be banned as long as school traditions were respected. The announcement has left many in Raasepori unsure as to what that means; even some members on the deciding committee say they want clearer instructions.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: YLE (English), h/t Tundra Tabloids

Iraq: Dutch, Danish teams targets in World Cup plot

Iraq: Dutch, Danish teams targets in World Cup plot

Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani Mr Qahtani was arrested on 3 May after a note about the plot was found

An alleged al-Qaeda militant detained in Iraq has given details about a plan he had to attack the World Cup in South Africa next month.

The Saudi man, Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani, told reporters he had suggested an attack on the Dutch and Danish teams in revenge for cartoons drawn of the Prophet Muhammad.

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"We discussed the possibility of taking revenge for the insults of the prophet by attacking Denmark and Holland," Mr Qahtani told the Associated Press.

"If we were not able to reach the teams, then we would target the fans."

The plan would have included car bombs and gun attacks.

The plan had not been approved, but had been awaiting the green light from al-Qaeda's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr Qahtani said.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com


The Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb) says it takes the threats seriously, though it does not plan on announcing new security measures. An NCTb spokesperson said that the organization already concluded that Dutch abroad were more at risk from terrorists than in the Netherlands.

The head of the Danish security service PET, Jakob Scharf, didn't want to comment on specific threats against Denmark, but said the massive media attention could make the World Cup an attractive target for Islamic militants. He also said that there's a general terrorism threat against Denmark, and that militant extremist groups see Denmark as a terrorism target.

Sources: BBC (English), Trouw (Dutch), Kristeligt-Dagblad (Danish)

France: Cabinet approves veil ban bill

France: Cabinet approves veil ban bill

The French cabinet has approved a draft law to ban the wearing of full-face veils in public spaces, opening the way for the text to go before parliament in July.


The bill calls for $185 fines and, in some cases, citizenship classes for women do not comply with the ban.


Addressing the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said: "Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face.


"There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places."


The bill includes a new offence - inciting to hide the face - with anyone convicted of forcing a woman to wear such a veil risking a year in prison and a $18,555 fine.


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Sarkozy asks Muslims not to feel hurt by veil ban


President Nicolas Sarkozy urged French Muslims Wednesday not to feel hurt or stigmatised by a planned ban on full face veils that will fine women who hide their faces and jail men if they force them to cover up.


(..)


"This is a decision one doesn't take lightly," he said. "Nobody should feel hurt or stigmatised. I'm thinking in particular of our Muslim compatriots, who have their place in the republic and should feel respected."


Sarkozy said France was "an old nation united around a certain idea of personal dignity, particularly women's dignity, and of life together. It's the fruit of centuries of efforts."


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Muslim women protest


"If the law is voted, I won't take off my veil. ... No one will dictate my way of life" but God, said Najat, a divorcee, who gave her age as "45 plus." She was one of a half-dozen women who, in a rare move, met with reporters on Tuesday to express their worries about changes they say will impact their lives to the core.


Like others, she refused to give her full name. All said they fear for their safety in an increasingly tense climate. Najat was among those who said she has been increasingly harassed since debate over the planned law began nearly a year ago.


(...)


The final draft text says France's founding tenets of liberty, equality and fraternity, values that guarantee the "social pact," are at stake.


The women beg to differ, claiming that France is betraying itself.


"Liberty. Liberty. I'm in France, in the land of liberty, equality, fraternity. I had the impression I was living it," said Oum Al Khyr, of Montreuil, on the edge of eastern Paris.


(...)


The bespectacled Najat, with a French mother and Moroccan father, said she has covered her face with a veil for 10 years. Najat said that because she is divorced and raising her children alone no one "can say this is imposed on me."


"I won't leave" France if the veil is outlawed. "Why should I leave?" Najat said, waving her French passport.


The women predicted that their "sisters," other women who veil themselves, would hide out in their homes so as not to get caught breaking the law. Several said they would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights if arrested.


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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Sources: al-Jazeera, Reuters, AP (English)

Catalonia: Town to debate veil ban

Catalonia: Town to debate veil ban


A Spanish town is to debate calls for a ban on wearing the full-face Islamic veil in public amid growing cross-party opposition to the burqa in the country, a local party said Tuesday.

The moderate Catalan nationalists of the Convergence and Union (CiU) party proposed the ban, calling the veil "an obstacle to the dignity and integration of women in our society," they said in a statement.

The presence in the town Lerida "of Salafist representatives (hardline Islamists) has facilitated the spread of practices incompatible with the values of sexual equality and respect for women."

El Pais daily said the town's socialist mayor Angel Ros has also expressed his opposition to the Islamic veil in the past.

Spain's Labour and Immigration Minister Celestino Corbacho said Monday he was in favour of a ban on the full veil in work spaces.

"Totally covering women with a piece of clothing, whatever the symbolism, completely goes against our society and stops the move towards equality between men and women," he said.

The council debate in Lerida, a town of some 140,000 inhabitants in north east Catalonia, will take place on May 28.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: Expatica

Sweden: Man arrested for plotting terror attack

Sweden: Man arrested for plotting terror attack

Though quite a few Swedes have been arrested abroad for planning and committing terrorism, I think this is a first for Sweden. About two years ago several people were arrested for financing terrorism, at which time it was discovered they might have been planning on attack on Lars Vilks.

In France, meanwhile, 14 people were arrested for planning to break out of jail the man who committed a 1995 metro bomb attack. But in France, arrests for terror financing, recruitment and planning seem to be much more common.

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A man has been arrested in Gothenburg on suspicion of planning terror attacks in Somalia, the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) has said.


The man, a Swedish citizen, was arrested on Tuesday morning in the Gothenburg area, Göteborgs Posten reports. A warrant for his arrest had been issued some time ago, according to police.

He was originally arrested on suspicion of ‘crimes against national security’, but police later said he was now being held pn suspicion of 'conspiracy to commit acts of terror'.

Police must either charge or release the man by Friday.

Prosecutors were on Tuesday giving little information about the man or the nature of the accusations against him. Agneta Hilding Qvarnström, at the national prosecutors’ office for security cases in Stockholm, told Göteborgs Posten:

“The identity is classified, the circumstances are classified, everything is classified.”

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: The Local

See also:

* Scandinavia: Somalis concerned about al-Shabaab recruitment

* Sweden: Somali gov't concerned about Swedish-Somalis radicalizing

France: "Burqa Rage"

France: "Burqa Rage"

According to the French media (FR), the older woman and her daughter claim the women with the niqab (26) slapped one of them before the lawyer ripped off the veil. The veiled woman denies that.

Two complaints were filed. One for an insult of ethnic, racial or religious character (by the women in the niqab), the other for violence (by the lawyer and daughter).

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A 60-year-old lawyer ripped a Muslim woman's Islamic veil off in a row in a clothing shop in what police say is France's first case of "burka rage".

The astonishing scene unfolded during a weekend shopping trip after the woman lawyer took offence at the attire of a fellow shopper resulting in argument during which the pair came to blows before being arrested.

It came as racial tensions grow in the country as it prepares to introduce a total ban on burkas and other forms of religious dress which cover the face.


A 26-year-old Muslim convert was walking through the store in Trignac, near Nantes, in the western Loire-Atlantique region, when she overhead the woman lawyer making "snide remarks about her black burka". A police officer close to the case said: "The lawyer said she was not happy seeing a fellow shopper wearing a veil and wanted the ban introduced as soon as possible."

At one point the lawyer, who was out with her daughter, is said to have likened the Muslim woman to Belphegor, a horror demon character well known to French TV viewers. Belphegor is said to haunt the Louvre museum in Paris and frequently covers up his hideous features using a mask.

An argument started before the older woman is said to have ripped the other woman's veil off. As they came to blows, the lawyer's daughter joined in.

"The shop manager and the husband of the Muslim woman moved to break up the fighting," the officer said. All three were arrested and taken to the local gendarmerie for questioning.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: Daily Telegraph

Netherlands: Gov't body drops project on role of religion

Netherlands: Gov't body drops project on role of religion

For more on the WRR reports see also "Muslims are the scapegoats" and WRR report violated scientific norms.

The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is dropping advice on the role of religion in the public domain. The plug has been pulled partly from political correctness, according to WRR staff member P. de Goede.

De Goede said yesterday in Nederlands Dagblad newspaper that the topic has been dropped from the agenda partly due to lack of time. "But the fact that the theme is extremely sensitive also played a role." He "regrets" that the recommendations will no longer be made.

In December 2006, the WRR presented its report "Religion in the public domain." It was the intention that an official recommendation to the cabinet on the role of religion would follow, but this project has now been dropped.

The WRR is still preparing a "supplementary publication" on the role of religion in the public domain, WRR communications advisor M. van Leijenhorst said yesterday in a reaction. But she was unable to say when this will be and in what form.

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At the University of Tilburg, there's currently on-going research abuot the role of religion in the public domain in the Netherlands, and the consequences for adminsitration and politics.

This is led by profesoor fo Professor of Public Administration Gabriël van den Brink.

He's aware that the WRR dropped their advice on the issue. "If they don't research it, we will," is his only comment.

Van den Brink suspects that the current policial climate is the reason for dropping the WRR advice. "Apprently the government doesn't want to burn their fingers on the issue of religion."

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Sources: NIS (English), Nederlands Dagblad (Dutch)

Finland: Somali population growing fast

Finland: Somali population growing fast

At the beginning of the year Finland had 11,881 residents speaking the Somali language as their mother tongue. About three fifths of them were born in Somalia.

Nobody knows what the figures will show ten years from now.

In recent years the number of Somali-speaking people in Finland has increased by nearly ten per cent in a year. Some of them are asylum seekers, and some are people who have been granted residence permits on the basis of family ties, while many are children who were born in Finland

In the Helsinki region, about half of the growth in the Somali population involves children born in Finland.

Of the 1,180 Somalis who applied for asylum in Finland last year, 548 were granted a residence permit.

The number of Somali asylum seekers has decreased considerably this year, and if the same pace continues, there will be about 600 by the end of the year.
Nearly all Somali asylum seekers whose applications are approved apply for residence permits for family members as well. At the end of this year, there were about 6,000 applications for immigration based on family ties, says Heikki Taskinen, director of the immigration unit of the Finnish Immigration Service.

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Cultures gradually blend in with each other. Researcher Heini Lehtonen says that speech patterns of young Finns in the East of Helsinki already show signs of an indirect influence of the Somali language.

Abib says that many Somalis who have adapted to Finland are so accustomed to silence that a more loud style of conversation annoys them.

“Young people get to know each other at school and in military service. Gradually attitudes change when they notice that we’re all people in the same way”, Mukhtar Abib says.

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This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com

Source: HS (English)