Netherlands: Police don’t intend to enforce burqa ban

Via RNW:

Once the burqa ban passed by the Dutch conservative coalition on Friday is approved by parliament, police will be obliged to enforce it, Security and Justice Minister Yvo Opstelten stresses.

“The minister expects police to enforce the ban in accordance with the law”, Mr Opstelten’s spokesperson emphasised. The statement comes in response to criticism voiced by the National Police Union and the central works council of the national police force that is currently being set up.

The chair of the police works council, Frank Giltay, had said there is no need for a burqa ban, which, he added, is unlikely to have any practical benefits. Burqas, he underlined, do not pose a threat to public security. He criticised the ban as a “symbolic policy”.

(source)

France: New Report Accuses Police of Discrimination

Via VoA:

Human Rights Watch says police in France are singling out ethnic Arab and African youths for unwarranted and sometimes humiliating identity checks. The rights group says this apparent ethnic profiling is further exacerbating an already tense relationship between authorities and minority youths.

A young man who recounted being stopped and questioned by French police thinks it’s because he’s Arab. One identity check is OK, he says. But after a second, third and fourth, he says it’s like being in a giant prison.

His account is among dozens gathered by Human Rights Watch in interviews with minority youths in the cities of Paris, Lyon and Lille. In a new report, the rights group says ethnic Africans and Arabs – some as young as 13 years old – are often targeted in police checks, even though they do not appear to be doing anything wrong. Another study, in 2009, found that French police were far more likely to stop blacks and Arabs than white people.

(source)

Bosnia: Police arrest Wahhabi leader

Via B92:

Strong police forces arrested Nusret Imamović, his brother Eldin and one more person in the village of Gornja Maoča on Wednesday.

The strong police forces have been searching several locations in the Wahhabi community in the the village of Gornja Maoča since Wednesday morning.

“The goal of the SIPA officers’ operation is to collect evidence that could be tied to the mentioned attack on the U.S. Embassy and all the evidence that will possibly be found will be handed over to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Prosecution after forensic processing,” SIPA has reported.

(source)

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.

The attack happened Tuesday evening, when both Christian Iranians were out walking in Haugesund. They were suddenly attacked by three masked men armed with knives, who shouted ‘kuffar’ while they stabbed the two.

A nurse passing by gave first aid and then an ambulance brought them to hospital, reports Haugesunds Avis.

According to the police, one of the victims was knifed twice in the back and the other was attacked with a stick in his side. No perpetrators have been caught.

The two victims want to remain anonymous and have not spoken of the assault. They’ve lived in Norway for many years. One of them converted in Norway, the other did so in Iran and managed to flee to Norway after he was abused and imprisoned for his faith.

They’re both active in a local evangelical church.

‘They’ve very active in the community, and have also bore witness to their faith during meetings,’ says their pastor, who also wants to remain anonymous, since he often travels to Muslim countries where Christians are persecuted.

He’s certain that the attack was religiously motivated. “I’m totally sure of it. Since the attackers shouted ‘kuffar’ during the attack, I have no doubt about it.”

He says he didn’t expect such things to happen in Haugesund. “It’s very dramatic and surprising. I didn’t take that into account. I hadn’t heard of threats against any coverts in the area.”

Surrey: girl attacked for wearing headscarf

Via the BBC (h/t Islamophobia Watch):

A race attack in Surrey on an 11-year-old girl will be the focus of community talks in Sunbury-on-Thames.

The girl was attacked by older white girls who kicked her, pushed her to the ground and drew on her face.

Surrey Police said it seemed the girl had been targeted on 11 January because she was wearing a headscarf.

(source)

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”. Many listeners complained by Sweden Radio says they don’t understand the criticism, since there was no preaching on the program. The show’s producer says that he did not take into account the importance of the day for the show’s rerun. On the other hand, they will not put something similar on Easter, since it’s a Christian holiday, and will be more careful on Easter not to broadcast anything that might annoy listeners. (h/t Muslimska friskolan)

Netherlands

* The Amsterdam council supported a motion allowing illegal aliens to lodge complaints by the police without fear of being deported.

* There was a lot of criticism in the Hague when members of the Salafist As-Soennah mosque helped police patrol the streets on the New Year’s. The mosque participated in the municipal ‘role models’ project.

Belgium

* In Antwerp the court ruled a company is allowed to ban headscarves. In the case in question, security company G4S fired a Muslim woman who wore a headscarf, since their uniform policy forbids wearing any religious and political symbols. The court ruled that the woman was not fired for being Muslim, but because she did not follow company policy.

Norway

* 90% of Norwegians say the July 22 terror attack did not change their attitude towards immigrants. 6.9% say they now more positive and 1.7% say they’re more negative towards immigrants.

* 2nd generation immigrant youth now graduate at about the same rate as Norwegians (66% vs. 70%). About 50% of first generation immigrants graduate.

* The Country Governor of Oslo says schools are allowed to ban students from wearing hats or caps in class, but they cannot ban the hijab since it’s a religious practice,

* Halal Christmas meat has become more popular in Drammen this year. Keran Kacar, who runs a halal meat company, says he has sold three ton of such meat in November and December, a tripling since 2008. Kacar says he sells the meat also to restaurants and regular Norwegian families.

Denmark

* The number of non-Western immigrants who get early pension with disability increased nationally by 51% over the past five years.

* A new study on immigrants in the media shows that the media turn to immigrant sources for just 5% of its stories, focusing mainly on crime, social security and forced marriages, though immigrants make up 10% of the population.

* The average stay in asylum centers in Denmark is around 500 days. But there are 68 rejected asylum seekers have been waiting in such centers for more than 10 years, since it’s impossible to deport them and they refuse to leave voluntarily.

Malmö: Funeral march against growing violence

Via the Local:

The arresting image of the grieving father of 15-year-old Ardiwan Diaa Samir, attempting to climb down into his dead son’s grave at the funeral on Wednesday, was a sombre reminder of the consequences of the escalating violence in southern Sweden.

Thirty shootings in 2011 and five gun related murders in less than six weeks have shaken Malmö to its very core. But the gunning down of 15-year-old Ardiwan was the last straw for many of the locals, making them take to the streets to demand a change and to keep their children safe.

“We don’t have a clue why this happened. I know my son and he was only 15 years old. He was not involved with any criminals so it was not a revenge killing to do with drugs or something else,” Ardiwan’s father Diaa Noman tells The Local just hours after burying his eldest child.

(…)

“We cannot find any answers. Even the police ruled out the issues of criminality because of his age. Our family came to Sweden for the safety here but for more than a year I have felt there has not been enough security in the city,” Noman says.

(source)

Antwerp: Police detain Islamists over harassment

Via AFP:

Belgian police on Wednesday detained 15 members of a radical Islamic group after they harassed passers-by in the city of Antwerp and shouted anti-Western slogans, police said.

The Sharia4Belgium militants distributed leaflets glorifying Islam and criticizing the Western way of life in a central street of the northern port city, Belga news agency quoted a police spokeswoman as saying.

(source)

Finland: Police called in to settle Islamic teaching dispute

Via the Tundra Tabloids:

The State Police (SUPO) was involved in a dispute during the autumn in a school in Tampere concerning a controversy which arose between the teacher and the parents of children over the Islamic religious education that they were receiving.

The situation came to a head when according to Muslim representatives the teacher was not teaching their religion properly nor cared about the values​​ of the Koran.

(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)