Elysée responds to Dalil Boubakeur

Displeased that its rector Dalil Boubakeur was not invited to Emmanual Macron’s annual meeting with the country’s religious authorities, the Grand Mosque of Paris (GMP) announced its withdrawal from the French Council of the Muslim Faith. Dalil Boubakeur has served as the GMP’s rector for more than 25 years and has attended the event annually. “It is…

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Ahmed Aboutaleb Pleads for “Patience” in Debate About Role of Islam in Dutch Society

The Dutch-Moroccan Aboutaleb, who has been mayor of Rotterdam since 2009, has pleaded for “patience” and ‘calmness’ in the debate about the role of Islam in society. He has been recently interviewed by Dutch newspaper Trouw, in which he discussed his views on the ways Islam has been debated in the Netherlands for the last…

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Doctor, fired from hospital for beard, loses in court

The request of a trainee doctor practicing at the Saint-Denis hospital center, fired in February 2014 because his beard was deemed “religiously ostentatious,” was rejected by the Administrative Appeal Court of Versailles in a decision issued December 19th. The court ruled that “growing a beard, even a long one, cannot alone constitute a sign of…

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Daech ‘soldier’ Emilie König arrested in Syria, seeks repatriation

Emilie König, a 33 year old Breton known as “the most wanted woman in France,” had been the target of American and international security forces for several years. She has been arrested in Syria by Kurdish forces and is currently being held at a refugee camp. König was the first women to be added to…

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Exhibitions in Berlin emphasise past and present interrelations of the three Abrahamic faiths

Germany, like many locales, is currently undergoing processes of societal boundary drawing giving renewed salience to religious difference. The aftermath of President Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital brought fierce debates about the (real or imputed) anti-Semitism of Muslim immigrants and their descendants. The result was a further instance of the discursive…

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