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. Media critics and political opponents are quick to pounce.

But that isn’t the only way to attract unwanted attention, as Jochen Hartloff, the interior minister of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, found out this week. In an interview with the Berlin tabloid BZ, Hartloff said that Sharia law, in a “modern form,” would be acceptable in Germany. In comments published on Friday in the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, he added that Islamic moral code “is certainly conceivable when it comes to questions pertaining to civil law.”

Hartloff, a politician from the center-left Social Democrats, made clear that he was referring specifically to family law issues such as divorce settlements and alimony, but also certain instances of contract law in which devout Muslims seek to avoid paying interest. Applying Sharia rules, he said, could help avoid hostility in such cases.

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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.

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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.

Researcher Nico Landman told the ANP agency that such a development is logical, seeing that Dutch is the language that the Surinamese commonly speak in the Netherlands. There are approximately 20 Surinamese mosques in the Netherlands.

In the Moroccan-Dutch community preaching in Dutch is growing, according to Amsterdam imam Yassin Elforkani. He pointed to the Ulu mosque in Utrecht and the Blue mosque in Amsterdam as two prominent examples. The rise of Dutch can be explained by the desire to reach young Dutch Muslims, most of whom do not speak Arabic, Elforkani said. Dutch-Moroccan youths also prefer Dutch when communicating on Facebook and other social media.

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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. The Minister of Social Affairs now formed a working group to look into the issue and see how the young girls can be helped.

Lisbeth Zornig Andersen, head of the Children’s Council, told the Berlingske newspaper that apparently nobody protects the interests of these girls, and that political action is needed.

Karen Hækkerup (S), minister of social affairs: “There is no bulwark to protect these girls. Even if the ceremonies are not legally valid, I recognize that it’s an extremely social problem.”

One option is to establish a special contact point where parents and young girls, who are asked for marriage, can get help. Berlingske reports that the working group expects to deliver its proposal and conclusions in March.

See also: Copenhagen: Koran teacher marries 15-year old Danish convert, Denmark: Imams marrying underage Danish girls, Denmark: Parliament ready to crack down on unregistered Muslim marriages

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. The Social Commission already rejected the justification and the municipality appealed their decision.

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.

Via La Libre and Le Soir (French):

Océane, a 13-year old Jewish girl, was beat up Friday by five girls of Moroccan origin after a gym class at Neder-Over-Heembeek (Brussels).

At the end of a football class at the sports center in Neder-Over-Heembeek, five Moroccan girls from the neighborhood insulted Océane for being Belgian and of a higher social level. Océane asked for a little respect, at which their leader told her to ’shut up’. One of the girls told their leader ‘besides, she’s just a dirty Jew’. The leader then slapped Océane twice. The young girl tried to escape, with no success. The leader then repeated ’shut you dirty Jew, and go back to your country’, and the five girls caught her and started beating her.

The incident was reported to the police. Océane did not at first want to go to the hospital, but after suffering from pains all weekend her father took her to the hospital on Monday, where the doctors diagnosed a concussion and inflammation of the cervical vertebrae. Océane fears retaliation and does not want to go back to school, where she’s a first year student. The girls are second year students at the same school.

Océane’s father, Dan, says this is not the first time. “There’s latent antisemitism at this school. My daughter was insulted with ‘dirty Jew’ at least a dozen time last year, and already a few times since the beginning of the year.”

Brussels MP Viviane Teitelbaum (MR), who has written in the past about antisemitism in local schools, denounced the attack and said she was shocked that this story did not get to the press and news sites.

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. Led by the Sans Papiers movement, the campaign has been underway since last May and also includes trade unions, and centre-left parties such as the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party.

Headlined ‘Stop hypocrisy’, the petition calls for an end to forced expulsions and for undocumented migrants to be given legal status and issued work permits.

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Denmark: New Integration Minister to change tone towards foreigners

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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.

The integration reform is one of the first items on the agenda for Minister of Social Affairs and Integration Karen Hækkerup (SocDem), she says to Berlingske, emphasising that “there will be a great many changes” in integration and immigration policy.

Among other things, the tone towards foreigners in Denmark will be improved.

“It pains me that so many people feel they are viewed as a problem. There’s nothing worse than being labelled an outsider beforehand. Obviously people need to behave according to certain norms, but we need to change the tone so people feel welcome and that they are part of a community,” says Karen Hækkerup.

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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.

Following the posting, the French Muslim Council (CFCM) contacted police and the French anti-Islamophobia Collective (CCIF) contacted the social networking site to have the page removed.

The offending statement called on the world to mark the Feast of Sacrifice, known as Eid al-Adha, on November 6 by “cutting Muslim throats instead of sheep”.

“We will finally have a good reason to celebrate,” it said.

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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. A report I commissioned demonstrated that starkly,” she said.

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