News and Analysis on Islam in Europe and North America
News Agencies – March 17, 2011 Like small-town mayors everywhere, Stéphane Gendron is trying to entice newcomers to settle in his community. But he may be the only one whose enticement offers include a promise to build a mosque and halal slaughterhouse. Although open to all immigration, Mr. Gendron says, he’s especially keen on courting
Two French self-declared Islamic fundamentalists, Bassam Ayachi, 63, and Raphaël Gendron, 34, who now live in Brussels where they run the Belgian Islamic Center (Centre islamique belge) were arrested in Italy on terrorism charges. More specifically, the men were accused of illegal immigration and of threatening state security in their planned attacks in France, notably
Italian prosecutors have accused two men, arrested last year for link to human trafficking, of being leading al Qaeda figures in Europe and involved in training militants for suicide attacks. Police in the southern Italian city of Bari said that the two men, identified as Syrian imam Bassam Ayachi and French computer engineer Raphael Gendron,