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.
Germany: Urban slang should be recognized as dialect, says expert Via the Local : The street slang spoken by young people in Germany’s big cities is so defined that one language expert is arguing for it to be recognised as a dialect. (…) “Kiezdeutsch”, which differs from city to city, is most common in multicultural areas, where different languages are mixed, said Wiese.
Oslo: Students complain school segregates by gender and ethnicity Via VG (Norwegian): Ali Hassan, Ali Al-Amin and Ali Hasane, who learn at Ulsrud high-school in the Oslo suburb of Bøler, say their school segregates based on gender and ethnicity.
France: Fearing attacks, Jewish students masquerade as Muslims Via the Jerusalem Post : 2 generations ago, some Jews sought to protect themselves by masquerading as Aryans.
Germany: First university department of Islamic theology Via M&C : Germany, home to 4 million Muslims, officially opened its first university department of Islamic theology Monday, with 36 students enrolled for bachelor’s degrees.
Belgium: Self-immolation in apparent attempt to escape forced marriage Via Het Nieuwsblad (Dutch), RTL (French): A 16 year old North African girl set herself on fire in the La Louvière hospital Thursday. The girl had felt unwell at the end of the school day and had come to the hospital with her parents. Shortly before the hospital released her she slipped away
Part I by Hira Amin Political From the political front unrest was found both in the provinces and in the elite Janissaries. The Janissaries, who comprised of young Christian boys being conscripted into the dervishme system, were trained to be officers, governors and soldiers
Malmö: Jews march against antisemitism Via Världen Idag (Swedish, h/t JIHAD I MALMÖ ): A small group of Jews marched in Malmö last Saturday against antisemitism.
Denmark: Schools drop Christmas traditions out of consideration for Muslim students Via Jyllands-Posten (Danish): Schools are increasingly changing Christmas tradition in order to take into account a growing number of bilingual children. At the Klostervænget school in Copenhagen, the school administration changed a few verses in the ‘A Child is Born in Bethlehem’ hymn sung by the children because they thought it would be preaching too much to the bilingual children. At Møllevang school in Aarhus the school administration asked a music teacher to choose hymns that took into account the Muslim students, after students in a 3rd grade class and their parents protested that the children were expected to sing “Here come your little ones, Jesus”
Norway: Muslim labour leader against dropping Christmas traditions Via Aftenposten (Norwegian): Masud Gharahkhani, head for AP (Labour) in Drammen city council, sees no problem with Christmas celebrations, Christmas hats or school services. Last week the 5th grade at Øren school in Drammen had a ‘winter celebration’ instead of a Christmas celebration