Denmark: DPP says Muslims are racist for sending children to private schools

Via Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish):

Alex Ahrendtsen, education spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party (DPP), said Muslim parents who send their children to private schools are ‘little racists’

Ahrendtsen was speaking to TV 2 NEWS, which reported that immigrant children go to private schools more than ethnic Danish children (14% of Danes vs. 15% of immigrant children)

“Arab, Turkish and Somali parents, they stick with their own. They marry their own, and they are not interested in meeting Danes and Danish society, who have reached out to them for 30 years,” Alex Ahrendtsen told TV 2 NEWS.

Newspaper Politiken reported today that the number of children in Muslim private schools increased by 25% over the past three years. Cultural sociologist Christian Horst (Aarhus University) says that it’s mostly the advantaged Muslim parents who reject the regular schools.

He told Politiken that those Muslim parents have gotten to the conclusion that the public schools aren’t good enough and that their children deserve better.

Education minister Christine Antorini (S) doesn’t want to point fingers are parents who prefer a Muslim school for their children.

“I think it’s just as troubling when Danish parents reject public schools. But in relation to immigrant students we have a problem, that we can see, that public school isn’t good enough to start them off professionally,” she told Politiken.

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.

Küçük says that the party is not proposing to ban ownership of dogs. Küçük was not available for comment over the weekend.

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. The Muslim party says that the animals belong in nature, not inside the house. Küçük says that keeping dogs is animal abuse and should therefore be criminalized.

He responded sharply during a council debate last Thursday, when the Party for Animals suggested more consideration for dogs.

Paul ter Linden (PVV councillor) responded saying that pets are the norm in the Netherlands, and whoever disagrees should move to another country.

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. 20% think the Queen shouldn’t have worn a headscarf. 53% also think that Beatrix should wear a headscarf when visiting a mosque in the Netherlands. Among PVV voters, 47% think the Queen acted properly, 53% disagree.

58% of the poll respondents don’t think the headscarf is a symbol of the oppression of women. Among PVV voters, 77% do think so.

Scotland: Muslims join Evangelicals in fighting same-sex marriage bill

Via TNT Magazine:

Religious groups in Scotland are mounting a campaign to block the Scottish government’s proposals to introduce same-sex marriage.

(…)

Scottish Muslims have also threatened a withdrawal of support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) should the definition of marriage be redefined to include gay couples.

Salah Beltagui, of the Muslim Council of Scotland, said: “Generally, support for the SNP [among Scotland’s Muslim Community] has been strong, but if this goes on, it might change things.

“If you go back a few years, Labour was getting the majority of the vote and after Iraq it eroded very strongly, so it takes one issue like that to change things.”

Beltagui added: “Our community as a whole are all of the opinion that the family should not be changed in definition. A family is a man and a woman and children.”

(source)

Finland: Finnish-Somali fights for Swedish minority rights

Via YLE:

Ahmed Hassan was nine when he arrived in Finland as a refugee from Somalia. In Finland, he grew up in a Swedish-speaking environment. Today he is on a mission for other foreigners to learn Swedish, Finland’s other official language.

In an interview with YLE’s Swedish-language radio news this week, Hassan, 27, says Finnish-Swedish culture is a part of his life. He is an active member of the Swedish People’s Party and works with helping foreigners integrate into Finland.

(source)

Amsterdam: Sharia4Belgium disrupts Islam debate

Via RNW:

Radical Belgian Muslims disrupted a debate on Wednesday evening about Islam which featured writer and Muslim activist Irshad Manji and Green Left Party MP Tofik Dibi.

The Islamists threatened and spat on Ms Manji. Tofik Dibi, who accompanied Ms Manji to the police station where she filed a report, said that “the disruption of the debate shows that even in the Netherlands it is necessary to continue the debate on a free and moderate Islam.”

Eventually, the police were called in to remove the protestors. A police spokesperson later said that two of the 22 men involved were arrested, one for making threats and one for insulting police.

(source)

France: “It’s easier for immigrants to integrate if there are less of them”

Via France24:

As he presented his party’s campaign platform ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant laid down the gauntlet to the far right by hardening the government’s position on immigration.

“It’s easier for immigrants to integrate if there are less of them,” Gueant told Europe 1 radio. “It’s obvious that we need to better manage the flow of immigrants. For immigration to work, we need to be welcoming fewer immigrants each year.”

(source)

Germany: ‘The Government Must Make It Easier to Work in Germany’

Via Spiegel:

Experts are warning that Germany faces a shortage of skilled labor that could become an increasingly serious threat to its economy in years to come. Companies in certain industrial sectors are already struggling to fill vacant positions. Demographic developments will only make that worse, as the German population ages and the labor force shrinks. But current immigration law makes it hard for German companies to employ foreign specialists.

Earlier this year, a consortium of German foundations and charities set up a cross-party commission to look at the problem. The commission is headed by Armin Laschet, former state integration minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, and former German Defense Minister Peter Struck. It also includes industry and union representatives, as well as politicians from Germany’s main parties. The body will present its findings to the heads of the party groups in the German parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday.

(source)

Denmark: DPP posts clip against Islamization

The Danish People’s Party’s new video against Islamization “I am Denmark” (h/t JihadWatch)