France/Belgium: Women’s organizations want burka ban In Paris, sixty activists of Ni Putes ni Soumises made an early start on International Women’s Dyy by marching with liberty caps in the place de la République, and then symbolically covering the statue there with a giant burka (picture here), later removed by the police. They were protesting what they see as a delay in enacting the law against wearing the burka in public places
France/Belgium: Women’s organizations want burka ban In Paris, sixty activists of Ni Putes ni Soumises made an early start on International Women’s Dyy by marching with liberty caps in the place de la République, and then symbolically covering the statue there with a giant burka (picture here), later removed by the police.
Norway: Youth suffer from religious coercion Related stories: * Norway: Education minister against hijab in elementary school * Norway: Debate on headscarf in school continues Youth from both Christian and Muslim families say that they forced to use religious symbols. Girls at the Hersleb school in Oslo say that they themselves choose to wear the hijab. But they too know of others who are forced.
Netherlands: PVV leading in Almere, wins in the Hague PVV leads in Almere. After counting the votes in 50 of the 98 polling stations, the PVV gets 22.2% of the votes. PvdA (Labor) gets 17.3% (down from 27.5%) and the VVD 14.6% (down from 16.8%), followed by D66 (8.5%, up from 3.6%) and GroenLinks (8.1%, down from 7.4%). A dozen Dutch women from De Schoor, a social-welfare institute, protested in front of the Almere municipality in headscarves Wednesday evening. “If Wilders gets to power, we'll lose our subsidy”. They came together with immigrant colleagues, who wore a headscarves due to religious convictions
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”.
Vienna: Experiences teaching a language-course Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, a well-known German journalist, writes about her experiences following a year of teaching German to headscarf-wearing women in Vienna. Coudenhove-Kalergi recounts numerous anecdotes, some humorous, some wistful, as she and her Muslim students gradually get to know one another better thanks to a program called “Mama’s learning German.” Though originally intended to be a language course, Coudenhove-Kalergi finds herself explaining the Christian origins of Christmas and taking her students, baby strollers and all, on a field trip to the famous St
Frankfurt: Hospital removes crosses A German hospital removed twelve crosses, supposedly due to objections from Muslim patients, Christian German news agency Idea reported Tuesday. Workers in the Bad Soden hospital near Frankfurt took off the crosses from the wall in front of the patients and put them in trash bags, which led to criticism by patients
Germany: Jewish leader warns of Muslim antisemitism In a related story, Imam Sabahattin Türkyilmaz of the Shiite Hazrat Fatima Zehra mosque in Frankfurt resigned all his positions in the mosque this week, saying he did so in order to protect the community, the blessed mosque, to protect all the families involved, the Muslims of the city and to protect – although now damaged – dialog.
Netherlands: Parties embarrassed by Turkish, Arabic campaign posters A number of parties have been caused embarrassment by Turkish and Arabic-language election posters that have appeared at various places in the country.
Denmark: Catholics upset at being ignored An interesting point here is the claim that 75% of all new Danish citizens are Christian. ————- When Islam and integration fill the news again and again on DR, it's both noteworthy and objectionable, that major Christian festival are often not mentioned at all. That according to several Catholics in Denmark, who today (Ash Wednesday) attack DR's way of prioritizing religious issues. “DR informs about Islam and ignores Christianity completely,” says Catholic priest Stephen Holm