Featured in Europe
US Secretary of State urges The UK and France to let jihadis return
At the summit of the international coalition against ISIS (an 83-nation coalition), held in Rome on June 28th, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated “The United States continues to urge countries – including coalition partners – to repatriate, rehabilitate and, where applicable, prosecute its citizens“1. According to the Guardian, these remarks were primarily…
“Seeking European Imams Desperately” : An Assessment of the Ongoing National and EU Initiatives
The function of imam is often considered the most effective entry point to organise Muslim communities, as Prof. Welmoet Boender, from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, points out in a recent article in the journal Religions. In Europe, imams are often considered a potential bridge builders between Muslim communities and secular-majority societies… if they possess the…
Islamophobia within the British Conservative Party: An Inquiry
The Conservative party has long faced criticism over its failure to tackle Islamophobia within the organisation, with allegations being made against senior and prominent politicians in the party such as Boris Johnson and Michal Gove. In 2018, the Muslim Council of Britain called for an independent inquiry into the problem. Citing nine cases of anti-Islam…
The Dutch right wing’s use of social media to spread anti-Islam rhetoric
Geert Wilders, leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom in the Netherlands (Partij voor de Vrijheid in Dutch, or PVV), shared a video clip on Twitter earlier this month attacking Islam and its traditions. In the video, released on 12 April – coinciding with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – the…
Kahina Bahloul and the European imamas, pushing for a modern and liberal Islam
Kahina Bahloul, who is credited for becoming the first female imam (or imama) in France, published in March 2021 her first book titled “Mon islam, ma liberté” (“My Islam, my freedom”). In this book, she explains her origins and her liberal vision of Islam. Born in Paris in 1979, Bahloul spent her childhood and adolescence…