Many in France view the growing role of Muslims in their society with a jaundiced eye, as do others elsewhere, suspecting that new Muslim political and religious networks are a threat to European rule of law and the French way of life. Not surprisingly, however, the reality of the situation is far too complicated to…
{Ministers to put radical groups on a proscribed list despite fears they’ll be driven underground} By Jamie Doward LONDON – A number of radical Muslim groups are to be proscribed despite concern that this will drive them underground where they cannot be monitored. As part of the Prime Minister’s 12-point plan to tackle terrorism, announced…
Female Muslim teachers in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be banned from wearing hijab at schools from next summer, according to a German press report. Officials in the State told Wednesday’s edition of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung that the hijab ban would take effect from August 2006, Reuters reported. “Female and male teachers…
PARIS: France’s Finance Minister, a presidential hopeful, says mosques need state funding and it is time to modernise a century-old law banning financing for religious groups, newspapers report. Nicolas Sarkozy, in a new book that hit the shelves yesterday, says extremism is festering in underground mosques and Islamic groups do not have money to build…
By Elaine Ganley PARIS – A powerful Islamic organization alleged Thursday that officials were abusing a law banning religious symbols from schools by expelling Muslim girls who were wearing printed bandannas, not Islamic head scarves. The head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France urged girls expelled for wearing bandannas to take their cases…
