A majority of Dutch believe that Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration politician much admired by Norway's mass murderer, does not need to tone down his inflammatory anti-Islamic comments, a poll on Friday showed.
A polarising figure in the Netherlands, Wilders has been criticised for speaking out against Islam and immigration, with comments comparing Islam to Nazism. Last month, a Dutch court acquitted Wilders of inciting hatred of Muslims. [Reuters] Read more
Muslim and Western publics continue to see relations between them as generally bad, with both sides holding negative stereotypes of the other.
.... Across the nations surveyed, Christians and Muslims differ in the degree to which religion defines their identity. Among most of the Muslim publics polled, Muslims tend to identify with their religion, rather than their nationality. This is particularly true in Pakistan, where 94% think of themselves primarily as Muslim instead of Pakistani.
Lebanon and the Palestinian territories are exceptions to this pattern, however -- more Muslims in both countries identify first with their nationality rather than with their religion. And many Muslims refuse to choose between nation and religion, volunteering that they identify with both.
Throughout Europe, most Christians think of themselves primarily in terms of their national identity. Fully 90% of French Christians take this view. The clear exception is the U.S., where Christians are divided: 46% primarily identify as American and 46% as Christian. Seven-in-ten white evangelical Christians in the U.S. identify first with their religion.
Both of the major religious communities in Israel identify primarily with their religion. Nearly six-in-ten (57%) Jews identify first as Jews, while among the country's Muslim community 77% think of themselves first as Muslims. Read more
A continuous survey of causes of “Islamophobia”. Conflicts in Muslim countries and terrorism are excluded. See here for explanation of survey.
Up to 10 July 2011
Netherlands: 'Schools should initiate immigrants into Dutch culture'
They go to a Turkish hairdresser, watch Turkish TV, read Turkish papers .... they're Turks who happen to live in the Netherlands.
Bangladesh Islamists stage strike against dropping Allah from constitution
Lib adviser sacked after anti-Islam web posts
Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science
…. the reasons for it offer insights into the history and nature of Islam and its relationship with modernity.
Former Czech PM sued over anti-Islam statements
Saudi Arabia's religion police step up crackdown on women drivers
Thanks to the EU your 'no-stun slaughter' steak won't be labelled
Your rape culture is not my religion
One blaringly obvious problem with the Hudood law was the need to present four witnesses in order to convict a rapist, failure to do so resulted in the arrest of the woman on charges of confession to adultery, that was the main issue.
Investigating Qur’anic inheritance laws
A male's share shall equal that of two females (Qur'an 4:11); If there are many brothers and sisters, the share of each male should be that of two females. (Qur'an 4:176)
Pakistani Islamic party leader: a woman should not report rape unless she has four witnesses
Legal move against minaret ban thrown out
Undercover police watching hairdressers for "un-Islamic" mingling of men and women
Muslim prayers at Toronto school provoke outcry
Hamas arrests male hairdresser for Gaza woman's haircut
Muslim reformers expose scandal of undocumented British marriages
Dutch Government Defends Wilders and Rejects OIC Demands to Silence him
Women 'forced to cover up' at summer fete
Fears grow for lawyer of woman in Iran stoning case
Geert Wilders Slams OIC on Out-of-Bounds Criticism of Free Speech
"No God" film angers Tunisian Islamists
…. several dozen men attacked a cinema in Tunis that had advertised a film publicly titled in French 'Ni Dieu, Ni Maitre' (No God, No Master)
Charity Commission closes charity for Muslim prisoners
A charity for Muslim prisoners that was forced to remove a trustee with suspected terrorist links has been removed from the charity register.
NZ Muslim women 'regularly' told to remove veils
Article on Muslim Brotherhood Website: Implement Shari'a in Phases
Liberal Muslims Losing Clout In Malaysia’s Shariah System
Muslims obligated to resist democracy, say radicals
e-Divorces a quarter of all marriage annulments
Under Islamic law, a Muslim man can divorce his wife by just saying “your are divorced” three times but a woman cannot do the same.
I was told that I deserved to die – for being a female journalist
Proposal could give police power to lift burqa or full-face veil
Tunisia cinema attack condemned
Tunisian artists and rights campaigners condemned on Friday an attack by Salafist Muslims on a cinema showing a film about secularism.
Iran: Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Christian priest
June 2011
Muslim weightlifter fights to compete, hijabi-style
…. the rules require arms and legs to be bare so judges can see when elbows and knees are “locked” to determine if a lift is successful.
Ritual slaughter ban reflects fights over food and faith in the Netherlands
Dutch interior minister argues for burqa ban
What a surprise! Now hate preacher cites his human rights to fight deportation
Saudi arrests women for driving: reports
Saudi Arabian charity in Pakistan offers education - or is it extremism?
"Obedient wives club", pretext for legalizing polygamy in Indonesia
US Muslim woman sues Abercrombie over hijab
East London Mosque: the lies go on
No doubt some Christians do hold homophobic views – but I am quite certain that you would never find them being openly and repeatedly expressed, with official approval, from the pulpit of, say, Southwark Cathedral, or for that matter the smallest parish church in this country.
Bearded Mickey Mouse 'a mockery of Islam'
Iran attacks BBC for documentary series on life of prophet Muhammad
Pakistan: Campaign against blasphemy abuse goes on
Protesters burn church, destroy bar in Senegal
Preaching good sex, Muslim-inspired Obedient Wives Club spreads in Asia
Antwerp: Sharia police patrols against gays, girls in short skirts
Indonesian maid saved from execution
The Indonesian government has paid SR2 million in blood money to save the life of an Indonesian maid on death row in Riyadh for killing her Yemeni employer in 2009.
FOSIS is the problem, not the solution
As a student, I have seen the effects hate-preachers have on young Muslims. Many times, preachers have been ushered from one Islamic society to another and FOSIS have enabled this to happen.
Teachers reluctant to discuss 9/11
Those in schools with high numbers of Muslim children are particularly concerned about talking about the atrocity - despite it being arguably the defining event of the 21st century so far.
Muslims Surround Church in Upper Egypt, Threaten to Kill Priest
Lebanon Sunni clergy reject domestic abuse law
…. also slammed as "heresy" a clause in the bill that criminalises marital rape, accusing those behind the draft law of "inventing new types of crimes."
Austria: Muslim leader resigns for saying sport unhealthy for women
Row over prophet cartoon in Lucknow
Discrimination: Air France Dulles Worker Sent Home Over Hijab
Muslim Tory minister says Pakistan's treatment of women fails Islam
Islam’s Persecution of Christians in Malaysia
An update on London university's Saudi links
Official: Radical Islamic hate preachers pose threat to Germany; should be deported
Brussels: Police claim they are forced to fast on Ramadan
Netherlands: 74% support uni-culturalism
‘Democracy is evil, Parliament is evil’ says radical Muslim cleric in billboard debate
Because they are blasphemers
…. a Muslim mob, fired up by rumours of the desecration of a Koran, attacked Christians and set fire to their houses in the town of Gojra, in Pakistan's central Punjab. Ten people died, eight burnt alive. Four churches were destroyed.
Muslims to Break Away from Scottish Education System
Political Activist .... Calls for a Law Permitting the Purchase of POWs in Order to Turn Them into Slave Girls
Here in Kuwait too, I asked religious scholars and experts about this, and they said that for the average, good religious man, the only way to avoid forbidden relations with women is to purchase slave girls.
U.N. rights forum proclaims equal gay rights, Muslims states object
Soccer referee sidelined for wearing hijab
Australian RSPCA renews its challenge to halal slaughter
Where are Britain's modern mosques?
.... five decades on, the choice is between a mosque where the imam doesn't speak English and hits the children or one where they speak English but insist seven-year-old girls cover their faces. And frankly, that's no choice at all.
Dutch government says goodbye to multicultural society
Belgium: Teacher suspended for headscarf comments
An Islam teacher at the Royal Atheneum in Verviers was given a four month suspension for saying that girl who do not wear a headscarf live in sin.
Britain Creating Parallel Islamic Financial System
Afghanistan worst place in the world for women
Pakistan’s booming female madrassas feed rising intolerance
Saudi Arabian lingerie law ends
Rules against "mingling" of the sexes at work in the kingdom, whose laws are based on a strict interpretation of Muslim Sharia, mean that most shops have male assistants only.
Necklace ban for men as Tehran's 'moral police' enforce dress code
Middle East Christians facing 'extremist atrocities'
Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you: a caliphate!
Faith schools fragment communities
Islamophobic crime fell in London last year – MCB spins the opposite
Police 'covered up' violent campaign to turn London area 'Islamic'
Woman held for walking without abaya
British tourist fined for insulting Islam in shop
In support of the bill on Sharia Law courts
Islamic Threat As Bright As the Sun
The authors have amassed a solid bank of peer-reviewed data attesting to the presence and promotion of literature advocating violence in the majority of 100 randomly selected American mosques.
I feel more distanced from Islam
I can't reconcile myself with the fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran I increasingly see. I feel that violence is exercised against my childhood faith, when there are calls for intolerance, hate and crimes against humanity in the name of God.
Woman weightlifter fights to compete in hijab
Ban homophobic clerics from mosques, gay rights campaigners urge
The myth of 'Liberal' Islam, deconstructed
Spanish court upholds ban on face-covering veils
Bill limiting sharia law is motivated by 'concern for Muslim women'
Pakistan's government is failing to protect the country's religious minorities, a new report says
Iranian Women's Soccer Team Disqualified From Olympics Over Headscarves
Islamic radicals are in schools, government report says
Fatwa body bans mingling of sexes
Sharon Horgan defends 'HIGNFY' Mecca joke
A Muslim group has criticised Have I Got News For You for making a joke about Mecca. In Friday's edition of the show, guest host Sharon Horgan made a quip about the holy city, which is the centre of pilgrimage for Muslims.
Pakistani Muslims demand a ban on the Bible
In France, a Muslim Offensive Against Evolution
Professor of Genetics highlights birth defects of Muslims due to Cousin Marriages
Muslim fanatic fined £100 for 'gay free zone' stickers
Denmark: Islam critic attacked, gets death threats
Unfaithful wives should be put to death
Yes, in many countries, the public will stone that woman to death. Believe me, that might be the right answer to the behavior of these kind of loose women, who want to blame it all on men.
May 2011
Saudi woman driver freed after agreeing to quit campaign
Churches are closed in Algeria
Billboards display posters declaring: JESUS: A PROPHET OF ISLAM
OIC Fatwa on Domestic Violence and the Rights of Women in Islam
…. wife-beating is specifically excluded from its definition of 'domestic violence', as long as the beating conforms to sharia requirements. The memorable phrase 'non-violent beating' is coined to express this perspective.
Amnesty International calls on Indonesia to end illegal caning
Germans quit Saudi travel fair over woman's clothes
Religious police demanded the German visitor change her abaya -- an all-encompassing black cloak worn by women in the ultraconservative Muslim power house -- because it was decorated with red embroidery.
Algerian Christian Given Five Year Prison Sentence for Blasphemy
Where Islam is not so benign
The truth is that in all Islamic states (both today and historically) non-Muslims are treated as kuffar (in Arabic, a term of gross insult), punitively taxed, and often have their lives circumscribed cruelly in many other ways.
UK Government condemns Bible burning in Iran
Taliban kill head of Afghan girls' school
Moroccan man on trial for 'total control' of his wife
Lancashire mosques chair criticises 'impractical' equality call
OFFICIAL guidelines that women should have more influence in running mosques have been criticised by a Lancashire mosque leader. And he said calls to complete prayers in English would not be adhered to.
Mayor promises to probe Sofia mosque for noise emission
Muslim gang launched horrific attack on religious studies teacher they did not want teaching girls
'Muslims participate the least in the labor market'
Iran arrests Bahais for 'online university'
Female Saudi doctor appeals to top court for right to choose a husband
Islamic leaders question non-Muslim rights
Former president of Islamic Da’wah Foundation Malaysia .... said treatment of non-Muslims must be based on the social contract agreed and pointed out that the government has been too gracious to the community.
$100m donated to Islamic schools
Donors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are sending an estimated $100 million (£61m) annually to radical Islamic schools in Pakistan that back militancy ….
Denmark: Gov't campaign to change immigrant attitudes towards women
Saudi woman detained for driving
Presbyterian wants Sharia law banned in South Australia
Swiss canton voters could ban the burqa
Muslim-Christian clashes erupt over reopening of church in Egyptian capital
Brussels: Vlaams Belang wants action against Muslim drivers who refuse to take dogs
Three out of four cattle killed without pain relief
Australian Government gives short shrift to sharia–lite appeal from Muslims
The organisation’s President, Ikebal Adam Patel, who wrote the submission, nominated family law and specifically divorce as an area where moderate interpretations of sharia could co-exist within the Australian legal system.
UN ‘Disturbed’ by Indonesia’s Religious Violence
New Study Finds Shariah Law Involved in Court Cases in 23 States
Australia Gets It Right on Sharia Implementation
Iran stoning woman's lawyer jailed, allegedly tortured
Australia denies Muslim request for sharia law
The Australian government has rejected a call from a leading Muslim group for the introduction of a non-extremist version of sharia law. .... In its submission, the Federation said while some Muslims saw sharia law as immutable, others argued it could be amended to respond to social change.
Muslim creationists tour France denouncing Darwin
Iran postpones blinding man in retribution punishment
Iran to blind criminal with acid in 'eye for an eye' justice
Egyptian Christians say they are 'under organised attack'
Social Democrat ditches Muslim holiday plan
Social Democrat party secretary Carin Jämtin has backtracked on the idea of giving Swedes a day off work to celebrate a Muslim holiday after her controversial proposal provoked a storm of criticism.
Warning sounded over polygamous Muslim marriages
The government has been told that it may be risking causing offence to Muslims living in Ireland who wish to engage in polygamous marriages.
Iran to make university courses more Islamic
Blasphemy case on Facebook adjourned
The petitioner …. arguing before the court said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Communication completely has failed to detect the blasphemy on internet and especially on facebook.
Burqa ban sees 27 offences recorded
Denmark: Failed integration of Blågård church Palestinians
UN could move to target criticism of Islam as 'hate speech'
Norway Imam children’s school applicant advocates decapitation
'Saudi Women Revolution' makes a stand for equal rights
Turkish Internet filtering plan 'unconstitutional,' experts say
Man kills stepdaughter for not honoring Muslim religion
Pakistan: Hundreds of Muslims attack Christians; police arrest Christians for counter-protest