The German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz – which roughly translates as Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – has published a new report titled “Anti-Semitism in Islamism”. In it, the Office professes to shed light on Muslim and Islamist anti-Semitism – a phenomenon it deems to “gain in importance particularly…
An intense debate is taking place in the UK between religious groups in the context of what has been described as the introduction of ‘LGBT equality’ lessons and the announcement by the UK government that from September 2020, relationships and sex education (RSE) will become statutory in all secondary schools in England. Relationships education will…
For years, German public debates have asked whether ‘Islam’ has a rightful place in the country and whether it can be considered part of its identity. Yet the reasons given by those that see the religion as alien to Germany have fluctuated over time. Shifting discourses of Islam’s ‘incompatibility’ First of all, as the years…
Writing in The Religion Factor, experts in law, religion, and ethics have offered their analysis of the proposed ban on child circumcision in Iceland, revealing the nuances of, and the concepts dominating, the discourse surrounding it.
Germany’s new Interior Minister has entered his office with a bang. Speaking to Germany’s leading tabloid, Bild, Horst Seehofer from the Christian Social Union (CSU) party triumphantly announced that Islam was “not part of Germany” or “did not belong to Germany” (Der Islam gehört nicht zu Deutschland), depending on the translation chosen.1 This quote made…
