Old and new forms of racism in Germany: Ethnic hatred and Islamophobia revisited

Are the rising levels of Islamophobic hate crimes in Germany indicative of a new form of racism? Yes, says Yasemin Shooman, researcher at the Technical University of Berlin and director of the Jewish-Islamic Forum at Berlin’s renowned Jewish Museum. ‘Immigrant’ = ‘Muslim’ The backdrop to Shooman’s argument is the de facto Islamisation of immigration debates. While…

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Forever in transit: New report highlights plight of Syrian refugees

For his reportage “Stranded. Refugees Between Syria and Europe” the writer Tayfun Guttstadt travelled to the cities of Turkey and along the Turkish-Syrian border. In conversation with Sonja Galler, he talks about the precarious situation faced by Syrian refugees, their legal status and Turkey′s lack of any kind of integration concept Turkey is one of…

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Outspoken defender of women’s rights founds a gender-equal mosque in Berlin

  The – patchy and insufficient – provision of religious spaces and services for Germany’s growing Muslim population has become a fiercely political issue. This is not only linked to a general and widespread sense of hostility towards Islam and its spatial visibility in the form of mosques, minarets, and headscarves. Rather, it is also due…

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Islamic group drops cemetery plan in Massachusetts town

WORCESTER, Mass. — An Islamic group no longer plans to build a Muslim cemetery in a small Massachusetts town following a contentious fight for approval. The Islamic Society of Greater Worcester announced Thursday it’s dropping its plan for a cemetery in the town of Dudley. The group says it wants to build in Worcester instead….

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Black Muslims aim for unity in challenging time for Islam

Many Muslims are reeling from a U.S. presidential administration that’s cracked down on immigrants, including through the introduction of a travel ban that suspends new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and is now tied up in court. But black American-born Muslims say they have been pushed to the edges of the conversations —…

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