“He was there with his heart and soul”: The mother of a German ‘foreign fighter’ speaks

In 2014 and 2015, European publics were kept in suspense by daily press reports on the rising numbers of European citizens travelling to Syria in order to join jihadi groups (and, to a lesser extent, Kurdish rebel forces). By early 2018, security agencies estimated that 960 men and women had made their way to Syria…

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Sinead O’Connor’s embrace of Islam leads to debate on conversions as an ‘existential threat’ to the West and further controversy

Sinead O Connor’s conversion to Islam has also lead to a number of negative reactions. Christian Theologian John Milibank took aim at O’Connor’s conversion when he tweeted: “Sinead O’Connor’s conversion suggest that Houillebecq has it right. Liberals will embrace an authoritarianism to escape their own contradictions if it is respectably other and non-Western. She is…

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As the far right seeks to co-opt the Jewish vote, uncomfortable questions about Germany’s culture of memory arise

On October 7, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party welcomed the creation of its newest inner-party pressure group: up to 20 Jewish AfD members gathered in the Hessian city of Offenbach to form a circle aiming to represent Jewish interests within and through the AfD. The move has been trumpeted by a number of…

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Islamist “mole” exposed at German domestic intelligence agency

Arrest on November 16 A 51-year-old man working at the German domestic intelligence agency – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) – has been exposed as an alleged sympathiser of the jihadist cause. He was arrested on November 16, after he had been placed under surveillance by his own…

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Paris terror attacks: We Muslims must hunt down these monsters who make a mockery of our religion

Twelve years ago, I converted to Islam to marry a Tunisian. It was a purely formal conversion. I remained fundamentally agnostic until 20 months ago, I experienced a spiritual revelation, started to believe in God and to practise my religion of adoption. We must take the lead in fighting and hunting down extremists, not just…

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