Cologne’s non affiliated mayor, Henriette Reker, made headlines across Germany in October 2021 for granting Muslim congregations permission to call for the midday Friday prayer. The initiative is currently limited to two years. This is not the first agreement of this kind: In the Fatih Mosque in Düren, also in North Rhine-Westphalia, the muezzin has been calling to…
Emine Aydemir is a devout Muslim woman, living in Cologne. She runs a fitness studio for Muslim women — no men are allowed. The women can train with or without a veil. There are no men around so their husbands generally have no objections to them going there. It’s a welcome change of pace from…
Politicians in Germany warned Saturday of the dangers posed by Islamists, following the arrest of two terrorist suspects and a police search for two others. The arrests took place in Cologne on Friday when a Somali and a German of Somali descent were escorted off a plane bound for the Dutch city Amsterdam. German prosecutors…
Protesters and other citizens in Cologne worked en masse on Saturday to shut down their city and prevent a demonstration by Europe’s radical right. But have they given too much attention to the fringe group, Pro Cologne, which organized the rally? When radical-right activists from around Europe arrived in Cologne on Saturday for a rally,…
The twin spires of Germany’s largest Gothic cathedral will soon be joined on the Cologne skyline by the minarets of the country’s biggest mosque. The $23 million Ehrenfeld Central Mosque, scheduled to be completed in about two years, will help bring Islam out of the back streets and reduce the influence of radicals, Mayor Fritz…
