London: Youth jail inmates converting to Islam for protection, easier lifestyle Via the Daily Mail : A third of inmates at one of Britain’s most notorious youth jails are Muslims and the religion is attracting a large number of converts. (…) ‘The popularity of the faith has surprised people. We are seeing a large number of inmates converting to Islam.’ He added: ‘There is a difference between mainstream believers and extremists, but the fear is that some in the jail are being radicalised.

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Hague: Muslim party denies dog ban proposal Via AD (Dutch): Hasan Küçük, fraction head of the Islam Democrats in the Hague, denies the party wants to ban dog ownership in the city. He says his words were taken out of context. During a debate last week about the municipal policy regarding animals, Küçük said that he thinks it’s pitiful that dogs are sometimes shut in an apartment for 23 hours a day.

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Hague: Muslim party wants dog ban via Spitsnieuws (Dutch): Hasan Küçük, Hague councilor for the Islam Democrats, says dogs should be banned as pets in the city, reports De Telegraaf.

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France: Three sentenced for Paris bomb plot Via AFP : A French court on Thursday sentenced three men to between two and six years in prison for plotting to carry out a car bomb attack on a public building near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Rany Arnaud, Nadir Badache and Adrien Guihal were arrested in December 2008 after they allegedly planned to set off a car bomb outside the offices of a national police investigation body in the centre of Paris

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London: ‘Strict Muslim’ raped women at knifepoint to ‘punish them for being on the streets at night’ Via the Daily Mail : A Muslim man who raped women to ‘teach them a lesson’ for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women. Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims – including a 15-year-old – from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.

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NYT: How to Integrate Europe’s Muslims Via the New York Times : (…) European countries could use a period of benign neglect of the Islam issue — but only after they finish incorporating religion into the national fabric. For too long, they have instead masked an absence of coherent integration policy under the cloak of “multiculturalism.” The state outsourced the hard work of integration to foreign diplomats and Islamist institutions — for example, some students in Germany read Saudi-supplied textbooks in Saudi-run institutions. This neglect of integration helped an unregulated “underground Islam” to take hold in storefronts, basements and courtyards

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Norway: Two Iranian converts attacked, called ‘kuffar’ Via Världen idag (Swedish): Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked me in Haugesund last week. The attacker shouted ‘Kuffar’ (Arabic for non-believer) during the attack.

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Norway: Lawyer calls to stop ‘Islam’s incursion into Europe’ Via Nordlys (Norwegian): Prominent lawyer Brynjar Østgård wants to stop Islam in Norway and thinks Islam threatens Norwegian culture and social order. “It’s difficult to find a Muslim-dominated country with the same social order we have

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Belgium: Muslim executive ‘under control of foreign countries’ Via HLN (Dutch): “Belgian Muslim bodies are definitively under the control of foreign countries. The Muslim Executive will now be led only by people who will prioritze the interests of their land of origin over those of Belgian Muslims,” says the AMDB (Democaratic Alternative of Belgian Muslims), who say they unite ‘all components of the Muslim community’ in Belgium.

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News catch up Various news stories I haven’t been able to get to recently: Sweden * Islam was dropped from the curriculum in the Sundsvall high school. The school inspection service says that such a decision to exclude the religion should be carefully considered. * Christmas morning Sweden Radio broadcast a rerun of a morning show where imam Abd al Haqq Kielan spoke about “Islam in Swedish”

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