Likely beginning by June 2009, Islamic banks will be authorized to open in France. Experts expect three banks will be shari’ah compliant – the Qatar Islamic Bank already established in London, the Kuwait Finance House, and the Al-Baraka Islamic Bank from Bahreïn. According to a study undertaken in May 2008, 500,000 Muslims in France are…
A French appeals court in Douai has overturned a lower tribunal of Lille from April 1st 2008 that had annulled the marriage of two Muslims because the bride misrepresented her virginity. The marriage was annulled when the court held that the woman had lied over what was considered “an essential quality,” and therein the marriage…
A criminal court in Paris convicted nine suspects on charges linked to the financing of and association with a terrorism group. One of these was Safé Bourada, a French-Algerian former prison inmate who established an Islamic group that called for armed jihad in France. The group, known as “Ansar al-Fath” or Partisans of Victory, was…
In two recent legal decisions, head-to-toe burqas have been banned from state-sponsored French language classes. Louis Schweitzer, the head of France’s anti-discrimination agency told La Croix daily that “Religious freedom is not absolute” and they authorities have sought “the most reasonable compromise.” His agency known as Halde ruled last month to ban burqa and niqab…
A new “confidential defense” report from the Penitentiary Administration of France claims that 442 “Islamicists” currently incarcerated have a worrisome comportment. Le Figaro reports that one highly ranked official told the newspaper that these “secretive religious inmates have radicalized themselves by surfing the Internet,” and far from learning and teaching from the Qur’an they are…
