Several Muslim and African states have proposed to denounce bans against minaret construction as ‘Islamophobic’ as part of a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on religious defamation. According to Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raphaël Saborit, “in principle Switzerland disagrees with the concept of a resolution devoted to the defamation of religion,” as religious freedom…
Following his participation in the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at Neuchâtel University, Muslim migration expert H. A. Hellyer tells swissinfo.ch that he is more worried about the “festering discontent” that led to the minaret ban than the ban itself. Hellyer states that he was not surprised that there such a ban should…
Following local elections on March 3, 2010, Radio Netherlands Online profiles the increasing success of candidates of an immigrant background in earning personal votes. While the phenomenon is not unusual, particularly in local elections, it appears to have happened on a larger scale during the recent elections, as in “every major city, and many medium-sized…
PRUNE (Partido Renacimiento y Unión de España) has elected a Christian woman as a leader in Catalonia. PRUNE is a political party lead by Mostafa Bakkach, a Spaniard with Moroccan origins. PRUNE members have a different type of political ideology; with different religious skills and they are open to considering everyone who wishes to participate…
This weeks news was dominated by the arrest of seven persons in Ireland planning to assassinate the Swedish artist Lars Vilks. Vilks became the focus of Muslim protests in 2007, when the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published his drawing of “Muhammad as a Roundabout dog”. Ever since the original publication Vilks has been receiving threats…
