Germany: Urban slang should be recognized as dialect, says expert Via the Local : The street slang spoken by young people in Germany’s big cities is so defined that one language expert is arguing for it to be recognised as a dialect. (…) “Kiezdeutsch”, which differs from city to city, is most common in multicultural areas, where different languages are mixed, said Wiese.
Switzerland: Radical Muslim group to launch TV station Via the Local : The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS) has announced plans to set up an internet TV channel, while it is also in talks with various companies to provide its members with a Swiss-Muslim discount card. The new TV studios, due to become operational this summer, will play host to a political show, a weekly series on a range of topics seen from a Muslim perspective, and a sermon series, newspaper SonntagsZeitung reports.
Netherlands: Dutch language gaining ground in mosques Via RNW : Dutch mosques are beginning to phase out Arabic-only sermons. Research at Utrecht University has shown that Surinamese Muslims are leading in this respect.
Belgium: Shooter didn’t feel Moroccan, wasn’t Muslim Via the New York Times : Belgians sought to make sense on Wednesday of a spasm of killing by a man with a history of trouble with weapons and drugs who unleashed his attack near a Christmas market at a historic square, bringing random death to a familiar scene of European holiday bustle. (…) “He didn’t feel at all Moroccan,” one lawyer said, adding that he “didn’t speak a word of Arabic and wasn’t a Muslim,” and that “he felt Belgian.” At other points, the interview quoted the lawyers as saying that he “was crazy about weapons, but as a collector”; “he felt that he’d not had much luck in life”; he “thought he’d been unfairly treated by the justice system.” One said his action was that of “a tormented soul who was at the end of his tether, cut off from the justice system and from society.” ( source ) See also here for more on Amrani’s history
Germany: Allotment gardeners told to prune racial quotas Via the Local : A group of allotment owners in northern Germany have been told to turn over a new leaf after they set a limit on how many people with foreign roots should be allowed to join their garden community.
Netherlands: MPs against ‘pedophile imam’ Via Volkskrant , Elsevier (Dutch): MPs Ahmed Marcouch and Kadija Arib (PvdA/Labour) are asking the government to deny imam Mohammed al-Maghraoui of Morocco a visa to the Netherlands. Al-Maghraoui was invited to a conference in the Hague by the As Soennah mosque.
Sweden: Arabic in Europe Via SvD (Sweden): ‘Rena rama arabiskan’ is a new show by Swedish journalist Nadia Jebril being broadcast on Swedish Educational TV. Jebril set out to find out far one can manage in Europe speaking Arabic. Her search took her through Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Italy, Malta, Spain, Bosnia and finally to Lebanon.
Denmark: Supreme Court rules to deport immigrant drug dealer Fez Fez will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Via the Copenhagen Post : Convicted drug dealer and gang member Mahmoud Khalil Salem, otherwise known as ‘Fez Fez’, has been expelled from Denmark by the Supreme Court. Earlier this year, in an evenly split decision, the Western High Court ruled that the 41-year-old from Odense, who has lived in Denmark for nearly 20 years and is currently serving a six-year prison sentence, could not be deported out of consideration for his wife and eight children who reside in Denmark.
Iceland: The Escape from Iraq to Akranes Via Iceland Review : “How is it to live in a tent in a refugee camp in 50°C?” This was the title of a symposium I attended at the University of Iceland earlier this week to celebrate the launch of the book Ríkisfang: Ekkert – Flóttin frá Írak á Akranes (“Nationality: None – The Escape from Iraq to Akranes”) by Sigríður Vídis Jónsdóttir. The book tells the story of eight Palestinian women and their children who fled Iraq to be resettled in Akranes, a small fishing village in west Iceland. At the symposium, Lína Mazar, one of these eight women, described life in the Al Waleed refugee camp.
Netherlands: Muslim MP launches anti-fatwa campaign ( final fatwa ) Via RNW : Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US, Dutch Green Left MP Tofik Dibi is launching an internet awareness campaign aimed at making Muslims think for themselves.