German TV debate between Merkel and Schulz focuses on migration and Islam, catering to populists

German voters will choose a new chancellor on September 24 in an electoral contest pitting incumbent Christian Democrat Angela Merkel against Social Democrat Martin Schulz. After a brief surge in the polls earlier this year, Schulz’ SPD now looks set to lose the election to Merkel, trailing her CDU by about 15 percentage points in…

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Integration of Muslims progressing in Germany, study finds

The German Bertelsmann Foundation has published a new report examining the lives of Muslims in Europe. Taking a comparative approach, the study’s authors rely on data from five countries – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and the UK. More than 3,000 Muslims participated as respondents in the surveys for the report. Enhanced labour market participation According…

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Hijab debate splits feminists in Germany

In a new instalment of Germany’s long-running judicial battles over the hijab, the country’s highest court has in a new verdict upheld the legislator’s right to prohibit Muslim women from wearing the Islamic headcovering in certain circumstances.   Jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court The Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) rejected the application for interim relief filed…

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Trump still has not condemned the Minnesota mosque bombing. Muslim leaders are waiting.

While President Trump’s Twitter feed remained mum on the August 6th Minnesota mosque bombing, other local, state and federal leaders have been quick to address and denounce the attack. Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton called the attack “terrible, dastardly, cowardly act” and that it was “an act of terrorism.”  The Governor was joined by the state’s…

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Congress narrowly rejects proposal for military to conduct a ‘strategic assessment’ of Islam

Tucked into a massive military spending bill was a provision that would have required the Department of Defense to study “the use of violent or unorthodox Islamic religious doctrine to support extremist or terrorist or terrorist messaging.”  A narrow majority of the U.S. House of Representatives — including all but one of the members from…

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