An H1N1 outbreak among 200 French military personnel and their families has meant they are unable to perform the Hajj. The spokesperson, Abdelkader Arbi noted that, “The pilgrimage reflects demand among Muslims military personnel and that the number of Muslims within the army.”
The federal government has turned down the proposal of a Toronto-based Islamic organization to introduce legislation prohibiting Canadian female individuals from wearing niqabs and burqas. The Muslim Canadian Congress had called upon the Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to ban the wearing of niqabs and burqas in all public dealings by introducing new laws. Studying all…
NRC Handelsblad has run a feature article exploring why Dutch-Egyptian parents are sending their children to school in Egypt. Three hundred children from Amsterdam were sent to schools in Egypt last year- twice as many as to Morocco. Education minister Sharon Dijkstra is concerned by the trend, which is “undesirable” because it presents an obstacle…
Six Uighurs formerly detained in America’s Guantanamo Bay have been resettled to the small Pacific nation of Palau upon the request of the US. “They are happy to enjoy the beautiful environment of Palau,” Mampimin Ala, an Australian flown to Palau to act as a translator for the freed Uighurs, told Agence France Presse (AFP)….
Geert Wilders’ PVV party is an ‘extreme right-wing’ grouping and a threat to social cohesion and democracy, according to a report leaked by Volkskrant. The report, which has yet to be finalized, was created by three academics for the home affairs ministry and looks at polarization and radicalism in the Netherlands. Ministers and the researchers…
