Germany: Politician Blasted for Support of Islamic Law Via Spiegel : Most politicians in Germany have gotten the message: The quickest way to spark a career-damaging controversy is to make a facile comment about Nazis or the Holocaust.
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 )
Netherlands: Dutch language gaining ground in mosques Via RNW : Dutch mosques are beginning to phase out Arabic-only sermons. Research at Utrecht University has shown that Surinamese Muslims are leading in this respect.
Denmark: Minister working on solution for underage marriages Via Kristeligt Dagblad : Last yer Copenhagen reported a man to the police for conducting an Islamic marriage for a 14-year old Danish girl behind her parents back. But nothing happened and the authorities were criticized for leaving the young girls and their families to their fate.
Denmark: Town uses imam’s verdict to stop welfare benefits Via Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish): An imam’s statement that a single Muslim woman shouldn’t have children will now be dealt with by the National Social Appeals Board. The Holbæk municipality used the imam’s verdict to stop social benefits to a single mother.
Brussels: Jewish girl attacked by Moroccan girls, told to ‘go home’ This story was originally reported by the Belgian antisemitisme site and translated by the Philosemetism blog . See both for more details
Switzerland: Thousands sign petition for illegal immigrants Via the Local : The Swiss government has received a petition calling for it to regularize the status of undocumented foreigners living in the country. A coalition of more than 100 non-governmental organisations is behind the campaign, with the petition — signed by 20,000 people — presented to the government on Thursday
Denmark: New Integration Minister to change tone towards foreigners ( photo ) Via DR : While the previous government made a point of putting a price tag on immigration to Denmark, the new SocDem-SocLib-SPP government wants to measure the progress of integrating “New Danes” in Denmark, writes Berlingske. A new integration reform will introduce a so-called integration barometer as an ongoing indicator of the number of New Danes who find work. The government’s goal is for 10,000 more immigrants and their descendants to be in employment by 2020.
France: Police probe Facebook call to cut Muslim throats (Via al-Kanz ) Via Expatica : French police were on Friday trying to identify a Facebook user who called “to cut Muslims’s throats instead of sheep” during the Eid al-Adha feast, sparking the ire of Muslim and anti-racist groups. “Police are carrying out an investigation to identify the author of these unworthy declarations,” police said in a statement, adding that the Facebook “wall” page in question had already been taken down.
Switzerland: Justice minister pushes for faster asylum system Via SwissInfo : Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga is determined to speed up the asylum procedure “massively”, despite criticism from the political left. In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger and Bund newspapers on Saturday, Sommaruga, herself a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, spoke of reforms lasting many years. “Our asylum process today takes on average 1,400 days – that is much too long.