Netherlands: Freedom Party shocked by integration report Via RNW : Freedom Party MP Joram van Klaveren says the annual integration report from the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) paints a “shocking” picture of crime among non-Western ethnic minorities. The SCP report is not due to be published until 8 February but, according to the anti-Islam Freedom Party, the figures show that Moroccans and Antilleans are more than five times as likely to be crime suspects than indigenous Dutch people. ( source )

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Netherlands: Minister says imams should speak out against homophobia Via spitsnieuws (Dutch): Education Minister Van Bijsterveldt says all imams in the Netherlands should jointly speak against homophobic violence and support respecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.

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Netherlands: Immigration minister wants to get rid of ‘allochtoon’ Via DutchNews : The word allochtoon, literally meaning non-native, should no longer be applied to people born in the Netherlands, immigration minister Gerd Leers told a meeting on Monday night, according to the Telegraaf.

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Netherlands: Dutch plan ban on Muslim face veils next year Via Reuters : The Dutch minority government plans to ban Muslim face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year. The ban would make the Netherlands, where 1 million out of 17 million people are Muslim, the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, and would apply to face-covering veils if they were worn in public. “People should be able to look at each other’s faces and recognize each other when they meet,” the interior affairs ministry said in a statement Friday

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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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Netherlands: Majority Dutch think Queen should wear headscarf to mosque Via De Telegraaf (Dutch): Queen Beatrix wore a headscarf while visiting a mosque in Oman this week, as a sign of respect for local custom. The Party for Freedom (PVV) criticized her, saying she was supporting the oppression of women under Islam. According to a Maurice de Hond poll, 79% of the Dutch think she acted properly.

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Netherlands: Khat is banned Via Expatica : The Dutch government Tuesday banned the use of khat, a leaf native to East Africa chewed for its stimulant properties mainly by the Netherlands’ sizeable Somali community. “The drug khat is banned,” the Dutch Immigration, Health and Justice departments said in a joint statement. Khat is grown in the Horn of Africa and has for centuries been chewed by users in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.

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Netherlands/Abu Dhabi: Queen’s headscarf causes row Queen Beatrix and Princess Máxima in Abu Dhabi Via RNW : Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who is in Abu Dhabi, wore a headscarf when she visited the Sheikh Zayed Mosque this morning out of respect for the customs, traditions and conventions of Islam, says Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal. The queen is on a two-day state visit to the United Arab Emirates. “Not to have worn one during a visit to a mosque wasn’t an option.

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Netherlands: Somalis fight for residency rights 33 Somali asylum seekers are staging a protest in front of a detention centre in Ter Apel, a village in a remote part of the northeast of the Netherlands. Full clip here .

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Antwerp: Dutch-Moroccan supermarket chain comes to Belgium (Arabic ad broadcast on Moroccan TV) Via vandaag (Dutch): Grocery-store chain Vers Centrum Tanger, owned by the Moroccan Barghaoul family from the Hague, will come to Antwerp in January. The chain has two shops in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and the Hague), and mostly targets immigrants

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