Free choice and its discontents: Germany debates Muslim women’s attire

What is the meaning of the religious attire worn by some Muslim women? Are hijab and niqab hallmarks of the retrograde nature of Islam? Do they signal radicalisation and submission to male patriarchy – or self-determination and individual empowerment? These questions have been ceaselessly debated across Europe for years. In Germany, a new round of…

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Liberal Muslims support Danish cartoonist

The Liberal Muslim network LIM (Equality, Integration, Diversity) supports the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and challenges the Norwegian Islamic Council (Islamisk Råd) and the Muslim Student Organization (Muslimsk Studentersamfunn) to join them in a manifestation against religious violence and in support of the freedom of speech. LIM representatives say conservative Muslims and organizations, such as…

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UK judge convicts Kurd of “honour killing” daughter

A Kurdish father was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering his 15-year-old daughter because she fell in love with a follower of a different branch of Islam. A London judge gave Mehmet Goren, 49, a minimum 22-year prison sentence for his so-called “honour killing” of daughter Tulay, who disappeared a decade ago…

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    Britain’s Muslims divided, government unsure how to act

    The Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank founded by former Islamists, published a report about teachings in British mosques. The study entitled ‘Mosques Made in Britain’ finds that nearly all imams have been born, raised and educated abroad and hardly know anything about (Muslim) life in Britain, including the English language. Therefore they are unable…

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