Netherlands: Gays try to exploit minors, get extorted by Moroccans

The minors who extorted money from gays in the area of Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands, apparently did so to dozens of victims. Five victims lodged complaints by the police, but according to the local branch of the gay interest organization COC, many of the victims don’t dare go to the police.

According to Peter Verhaegh, chairman of the COC in Bergen op Zoom, the victims tried to contact minor boys on the internet. Since that’s criminal, many victims are reluctant to lodge complaints, he said Friday.

Verhaegh says that anonymous reports show that the Moroccan perpetrators had victims from all over the Netherlands and Belgium. Dozens were victimized.

The men contacted the three 16-year-olds via chat-sites. Two of them are currently in custody. In the area of Bergen op Zoom they were then confronted with the printouts of the chats with the minors and threatened that those would be handed over to the police.

The victims were then forced to draw out money and in some cases hand over their watches and phones too. In some cases they lost 750 euro.

Source: Trouw (Dutch)

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Basel: Parents fined for missed swimming lessons

Via SwissInfo:

Several Muslim families have been fined for keeping their children out of mandatory school swimming lessons, the first time such a punishment has been handed down.

Education authorities in canton Basel-City said on Thursday that seven children from five families had missed the lessons. Five of the children were removed on religious grounds. All of the students were girls under the age of ten.

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

A revision of cantonal school policies made the lessons obligatory one year ago and each parent can be fined as much as SFr1,000 ($957) for not sending his or her child to the classes. Fines in these particular cases were set at around SFr350 per child per parent, meaning a two-parent family with two children who missed the classes must pay SFr1,400.

Basel-City schools offer swimming lessons that separate boys and girls past puberty, while younger children take the classes together.

Christoph Eymann, director of the canton’s education department, said it is important for schools to avoid creating parallel societies. There are a total of 1,033 Muslim boys and girls registered in the canton’s primary schools.

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UK: Surge in tax-funded ‘virginity repair’ operations

Via Daily Mail:

An increasing number of women are having controversial ‘virginity repair’ operations on the NHS before they get married.

In the last five years, 116 hymen repair operations have been undertaken at the tax payer’s expense.

Thousands more women are believed to be paying up to £4,000 to have the surgery done privately each year.

NHS surgeons carried out 30 of the procedures in 2009 – up 20 per cent from 2005.

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

In the private sector one Harley Street doctor claimed to carry out up to three of the operations a day.

The specialist who offers a hymenoplasty for £1,850, said demand had tripled in recent years.

The operation, which is available on the NHS ‘for physical and psychological’ reasons, takes just half an hour.

Private practitioners have claimed a surge in demand in the operation has been driven largely by Muslim women desperate to preserve the illusion that they have not had sex before their wedding night.

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Consultant surgeon Ash Mosahebi, who performs the procedure at various London clinics, said he had noticed a recent rise in demand of around 40 per cent.

He said: ‘There is a clash of cultures where Muslim women are leading westernised lifestyles but then wanting to conform to the traditional lifestyle of remaining a virgin.

‘As it becomes more widely known that operations are available, they are getting to hear about them from friends and increasingly considering it.’

Critics, including moderate Muslim groups, have condemned the trend as a sign of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the West.

Imam Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford, called on the Muslim community to try to reverse the trend.

He said: ‘The rise in the number of these operations in Britain is a very disturbing trend.

‘The situation is very common in the Middle East where there is a huge scandal that can lead to divorce or even honour killings if there are not bloodstained bed sheets after the wedding night.

‘It is very disappointing that Muslim women in this country feel they need to lead a double life, resorting to subterfuge surgery.

‘That is not conducive to either their psychological or spiritual health and it is hypocrisy and double standards because Muslim men are doing as they please with women.

‘The Muslim community should be confronting the issue rather than pretending it is not happening. I shall be speaking out about it in my next sermon.’

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Switzerland: Swiss People’s Party surveys Swiss on foreigner policy

Via WRS:

Should Switzerland abandon or renegotiate the Free Movement of People accord with the EU? Should long term unemployed foreigners be sent home? Should foreigners who commit serious crimes be automatically deported?

The Swiss People’s Party has sent out a questionnaire to every Swiss household to canvas opinion on these and similar issues. The questionnaire’s accompanied by a pamphlet outlining the Swiss People’s Party’s outlook on foreigners, immigration and crime.

WRS reports (audio).

France: The threats facing Jews

A few months ago I wrote an opinion article about the threats to Jews and Judaism in Europe today. I pointed out that while the ‘anti-Jihadists’ focus on the ‘new’ Islamic antisemitism and expect Jews to join them, there are several reasons why it’s not a Jewish interest to do so. First, the Muslims are not the only ones who hate the Jews. And second, they cannot support efforts to assimilate minorities and join the fight against religious laws since assimilation and anti-religion laws could also lead to the decimation of the European Jewish community.

The Jerusalem Post interviewed two French Jewish leaders, and though they differ on which threat is worse, they basically say the same thing.

They might support a ban on burkas, but their reasons for doing so are not because they’re anti-Islamization.

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

What’s the single most important issue affecting the Jews of France, Europe’s biggest Jewish community and the third largest in the world? Ask two Jews and you’ll get three opinions, right? Well, not quite.

Joel Mergui, president of the Consistoire Central, the body charged by the government with organizing the community’s religious affairs, and Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella organization for Jewish advocacy groups, agree on the big issues but disagree over their order of importance – just as you’d expect from a leader who heads a religious organization and one helming a nonreligious political organization.

In separate interviews with The Jerusalem Post on Monday at their offices on opposite sides of the French capital, the leaders of the French Jewish establishment outlined the challenges, fears and hopes of the community as they see them.

Mergui believes assimilation is the biggest problem French Jewry has to take on.

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Prasquier, too, believes assimilation is an important issue worth reckoning with.

However, he believes the main problem facing the Jewish community is the unholy marriage of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism by extreme leftists, rightists and Islamists.

“My predecessor called it the Red-Green Alliance,” he said. “Some on the left don’t mind being allied with Islamic extremists like those who were on the Mavi Marmara [Gaza protest ship]. And many people in the center are being influenced by their views of Israel, so much so that they question their own policy toward it.”

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Mergui and Prasquier agree that Islamic veils completely or mostly covering women’s faces are contrary to the notion of being French and support the bill that would ban them in public. Yes, they both worry government interference over Jewish issues like shehita ritual slaughter, which some animal rights groups want to ban citing cruelty. But burqas are a another matter, they say.

“A majority of Muslims in France say these veils have nothing to do with Islam,” Mergui said.

“To me it is a breach of the social contract,” Prasquier said. “Women are separated from society in such a way that you cannot even see their faces.”

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Germany: Soccer authorities get ruling on Ramadan fasting

Via AP:

A Muslim group and German soccer authorities said Wednesday they have determined that professional Muslim players may break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The announcement followed a dispute involving second-division club FSV Frankfurt, which last year gave a formal warning to three of its players for fasting.

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UK: Healthy heart training for imams

Via Manchester Evening News:

The British Heart Foundation and QUIT are working together to encourage the Muslim community to stop smoking and lead a healthier lifestyle this Ramadan.

Statistics suggest that South Asians in the UK are 50 per cent more likely to die from heart disease than those in the general population .

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

As part of the Ramadan campaign, the BHF will be training 300 imams in major cities across the UK.

Trainees will receive information they need to help their congregation make positive lifestyle changes including stopping smoking, improving their diet and exercising more. The initiative will take place in Manchester, London, Blackburn and Bradford.

Qaim Zaidi, Ethnic Strategy Manager for the BHF said: “During Ramadan Muslims do not eat, drink or smoke from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. For many it’s the ideal time to kick the smoking habit and lead a healthier lifestyle. Stopping smoking is one of the most important things you can do to benefit your health.

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Austria: Cracking down on benefits abuse by asylum seekers

Via Deutsche Welle:

Austria is cracking down on illegal immigrants and asylum seekers thought to be illegally claiming benefits. Interior Minister Maria Fekter says 500 police officers will be given the task of tracking down those accused of ripping off the state.

The officers are also to receive special training in dealing with foreigners and are to conduct nighttime raids on refugee centers and buildings housing asylum seekers. Neighbors are being asked to tell police about the shopping habits of those seeking asylum.

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

Fekter said the aim was to expose those who are ripping off the system.

“Some of them are operating illegal vehicle workshops,” Fekter said. “There are some who have registered dozens of vehicles. And so we are investigating the details to see if these people really require aid.”

Raids over the past week led to six arrests on charges of illegal residence. Over 100 people were given notice that they did not meet the criteria for state aid.

The minister says that the cost of providing food and shelter for Austria’s 19,000 asylum seekers is around 100 million euros ($130 million) a year.

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France: Race bias claim at holiday venues

Via The Connexion:

AN UNDERCOVER operation by an anti-racism group has exposed racism at some bars and clubs on campsites in the south of France.

SOS Racisme found two campsites and three clubs in the Alpes-Maritimes, out of a total of around 20 establishments tested, turned away ethnic minorities before allowing whites inside.

The organisation has named Le Camp du Pylône in Antibes Juan-les-Pins and Le Green Park at Cagnes-sur-mer as campsites which discriminated between the two young men of north African origin and two young white men sent to try and stay there.

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While the north African men were turned away from clubs because they were “reserved for regulars”, “too young” or they were “about to close”, the white men were allowed in soon afterwards without any problems, said Mr Sopo.

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