Sweden: Municipality subsidizes Ramadan campaign The municipality of Helsingborg is giving 30,000 Swedish kroner to the Ibn Rush student association to disseminate information about the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. “Ramadan is part of Swedish culture and we want to tell everybody about it,” says imam Othman Al Tawalbeh. Ramadan has become an integral part of Swedish culture, but information about the Islamic holiday and Muslim customs and practices should be disseminated further, says imam Othman Al Tawalbeh, director of Muslim student association Ibn Rush’s southern district

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Sweden: Long summer days a challenge to Ramadan fasting Via the Local : Sweden’s long summer days are presenting a challenge to Muslims fasting for Ramadan, which starts on Wednesday. Religious leaders say the long hours of daylight are not a good excuse to skip the fast. Things are set to get even more challenging in 2015, when the fast will fall in June.

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Sweden: 66% of parliament support cordon sanitaire against SD See also: Sweden: Sweden Democrats could decide next government coalition Via The Local : Of the 148 Swedish members of parliament from across the party spectrum interviewed in a new survey, 66 percent are prepared to cooperate across the political blocs to ensure a stable government if the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) enter parliament. The survey, commissioned by the Göteborg-Posten (GP) newspaper, comes after a voter opinion poll published on Tuesday which indicates that the anti-immigrant nationalist party held the support of 6.5 percent of the electorate and could thus hold the balance of power after the September general election. Parliamentarians in favour of working to marginalise the Sweden Democrats argue that parties should cooperate to prevent them from attaining a possible kingmaker role.

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Sweden: Unmarried Iranians asylum risk Via SR : The newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” reports than an Iranian researcher has been denied a visa to attend a science conference in Sweden because she is unmarried.

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Stockholm: “Let’s work together to modernize Sweden” The Swedish parliamentary elections are coming up in September. The Swedish Green Party posted the following ad in the immigrant-heavy Stockholm suburb of Skärholmen. ( PI ) This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com The slogan says “Let’s work together to modernize Sweden!”, and the poster seems to be a translation of what the Green Party calls the multicultural elections ad: ( Green Party ) “Modernize Sweden! We believe in an open Sweden, which takes in any one who wants to live here

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Germany: Football squad revitalised with multicultural approach When Sami Khedira and his Under-21 team‑mates held aloft the European Championship trophy last summer, after humbling England 4–0 in the final, they dreamed of changing the face of German football. Little did they know that their opportunity would come so quickly.

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Sweden: Terror suspect lured to Somalia The Gothenburg resident suspected of conspiring to commit terrorist acts might have been lured to Somalia.

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Sweden/Switzerland: Difficulties in school for 2nd generation immigrants New figures released by the Swedish National Agency for Education reveal that foreign-born children are still less likely than children born in Sweden to succeed in school. They also show that there are large differences depending on where the children came from . The study showed that after completing secondary school, only 25 percent of Somali-born students are ready for senior high school, compared to 82 percent of Finnish-born students .

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Uzbekistan: Sweden harbors terrorists This is not the first time the Uzbeks accuse Sweden of giving free reign to Islamic terrorists , and in particular to Obidkhon Nazarov.

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Norway/Sweden/Finland: Attitudes towards immigration Recent polls in Norway, Sweden and Finland show a varied picture of attitudes towards immigration, with Finns being most opposed, while Sweden and Norway generally think it’s a good thing.

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