UK: Terror warning over Muslims radicalised in prisons Amnesty International recently published a report about the UK’s use of control orders which said that terrorism should be dealt with by the criminal justice system. I related to this idea in an article on JURIST , the University of Pittsburgh School of Law site. News stories like this emphasize how simplistic Amnesty’s solutions are.
Austria: Uproar over ‘Turkish’ milk NÖM, an Austrian dairy headquartered in Baden (Lower Austria), is getting calls and protest mails and a boycott action is being organized against the company. Three weeks ago the company started marketing milk cartons with Turkish on the packaging, mainly to 300 Turkish shops. The carton says “Süt” (Turkish) instead of “Milch” (German)
Opinion: Do moderate Muslims exist? A couple of weeks ago the Guardian was all aghast about the fact that the Quilliam Foundation accused moderate peace-loving Muslims of being radicals. The assumption being that if a Muslim is working for the Scotland Yard, then he must be moderate
Austria: Muslim leader calls for more mosques with minarets (Vienna Mosque, Wikipedia ) Via Washington Times : A call for more mosques with minarets in Austria gave rise Sunday to heated criticism from right-wing politicians, some going as far as demanding a ban on all immigrants from Muslim countries. In an interview with the Austria Press Agency published Sunday, the head of the country’s Islamic community, Anas Shakfeh, said he wished to see a mosque with a minaret in each of Austria’s nine provincial capitals.
Finland: Terror suspects prevented from entering the country Via YLE : Finland’s Security Police(SUPO) says it has successfully prevented people who pose a threat to national security from entering the country. Security Police Commissioner Ilkka Salmi told YLE that an operation coordinated with embassy officials in Africa had prevented terrorist suspects from entering Finland
Norway: Court rules police hijab ban is illegal Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in response that he does not intend to change the current no-hijab policy. Via AFP : A Norwegian administrative court on Friday said a ban on police women wearing the Islamic headscarf was illegal, in response to a government refusal in 2009 to allow officers to don the hijab. The Norwegian Equality Tribunal said in a non-binding opinion that the ban ran counter to the country’s freedom of religion and anti-discrimination laws by depriving a whole category of women from access to the police profession
Germany: Ramadan becoming normal The Muslim fast is becoming so normal, that all German parties celebrate Ramadan. The Muslim Ramadan is quietly becoming part of the public space in Germany, and thus something which interests non-Muslim Germans – or in any case, something they can’t avoid noticing. “The interest of Germans in Ramadan is growing,” says general secretary of the Muslim Central Council, Aiman Mazyek, with satisfaction.
Norway, Belgium, UK: Terror cells part of European al-Qaeda network Via Daily Telegraph : Passport photographs of Ibrahim Adam, 23, who has been on the run for three years, have been discovered after British intelligence began unraveling one of the biggest terrorist networks discovered since September 11. Security sources told the Daily Telegraph they believe Adam is currently in Pakistan but is trying to get a passport. They fear that he may be trying to travel to the West in order to plan attacks
UK: British Pakistanis raise flood aid through grassroots activism Via The Guardian : More than £3,000 has been put into the collection box at Mohammed Asif’s Gloucestershire shop. Those proceeds will be spent 4,000 miles away, in the north-western province of Pakistan, where the businessman’s extended family has constructed a soup kitchen for hundreds of flood victims. The aid supply chain linking Asif’s Oriental Food Store in Cheltenham to refugees flooding into the Pakistani city of Nushera is one of hundreds of ad-hoc relief efforts that British Pakistanis have begun organising while Pakistan’s government struggles to cope with the disaster.
Bosnia: Wahabis warn Muslims not to join police, army Via AKI : Radical Wahabi fundamentalists have been leafleting mosques throughout Bosnia Herzegovina urging Muslims not to join the country’s police and army.