Germany: Government aims to hire more minorities Via the Local : Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has unveiled a formal programme designed to increase the number of minorities in public service, calling integration “more urgent than ever.” Merkel announced a “National Action Plan” at an integration summit in Berlin on Tuesday where more than 100 federal, state and provincial officials gathered to discuss how to attract more people from minority backgrounds into government service.

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A New Beginning for Muslims in Europe? Via the Boston College Chronicle : Western Europe hardly seems a model for harmonious relations between Muslim minorities and the non-Muslim societies in which they reside

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Netherlands: Law to ban burkas highly criticised by government advisors Via DutchNews : Draft legislation aimed at banning burkas in the Netherlands has been heavily criticised by the government’s most important advisory body and needs significant amendments, news agency ANP reports, citing regional newspapers. ( source )

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Ireland: Gov’t plans to be first EU state to sell Islamic bond Via the Irish Examiner (h/t Jihad Watch ): IRELAND plans to become the first European nation to sell sovereign sukuk — Islam-approved financial certificates — as its equal tax treatment for Islamic-finance products attracts investors. The Government has agreements with more than 60 countries to avoid double taxation on Islamic transactions, Micheál Smith, the south-east Asia director of IDA Ireland, said. ( source )

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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.

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Germany: Neo-Nazi killings, apathy shock minorities Via the Local : Revelations a neo-Nazi gang was able to commit racists murders unhindered for a decade – and Germany’s seeming indifference to the crimes – has shaken the country’s minority communities.

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Netherlands: New arrivals can borrow €10,000 to pay for integration courses Via DutchNews : New arrivals to the Netherlands will be able to borrow up to €10,000 in a soft loan to pay for their compulsory integration (inburgering) course, the government has decided. Immigrants will have up to three years to pass the course, which will include a centrally-organised examination, or lose their residency permit

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LIFE BEFORE ACCEPTANCE OF ISLAM Hadrat Uthman (R.A.) belonged to a noble family of Quraish in Mecca. His ancestral pedigree joins with that of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu ‘Alaihi wa Sallam) in the fifth generation. He was from the “Umayyah” family of Quraish, which was a well reputed and honourable family of Mecca during the pre-Islamic days

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Denmark: Funding boost for schools with high immigrant enrollment Via the Copenhagen Post : Schools with high proportions of bilingual and non-ethnic Danish children will receive extra funding to help raise students’ language skills. The initiative, outlined in the government’s new budget, will deliver one million kroner per year over three years to each of 14 national schools whose student make-up is comprised of at least 40 percent non-ethnic Danes

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Moscow: “Migrants Today, Occupiers Tomorrow” Via RFE/RL : Several thousand nationalists are marching in Moscow to call for ethnic Russians to “take back” Russia. RFE/RL correspondents say more that than 10,000 have been participating in the march. (…) This year’s march is taking place amid growing resentment among some Russians over Muslim migrants from Russia’s Caucasus and the money the government sends to the restive region

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