The Austrian publisher Studienverlag has published a yearbook of research on Islamophobia in the German-speaking countries (Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung 2010: Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz). It is an introduction to the academic use of the term “Islamophobia” and includes recent empirical examples such as the courtroom murder of Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini or the Swiss minaret ban. Further…
The Ruhr area, a former industrial region and this year’s European Culture Capital, will place Islam at the center of its arts festival the Ruhr-Triennale. Leaving headscarf and minaret debates aside, producer Decker seeks to explore religiosity and its link to movement and journey, which plays a particularly large role in Islam, and eventually to…
The Association for a Tolerant and Open-minded Switzerland has gathered 4 000 signatures in opposition to the Swiss minaret ban. The signatures were given to a Muslim youth organisation, Ummah, after having been collected mostly on line.
Several commentators have noted the similarity of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front posters against Islamism in France to those in the anti-minaret campaign in Switzerland in November 2009. Please see the article to compare the images.
In an interview with two German-language newspapers (“Tages-Anzeiger” and “Bund”), Muslim intellectual and Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan stated that “most Muslims in Switzerland come from the Balkans, have been here for quite some time, and have integrated well into society.” According to him, despite the minaret ban the situation of Muslims in Switzerland is significantly…
