A political battle is shaping up in France over whether fully-veiled Muslim women should be banned from appearing on the street or in any other public settings, a proposal already endorsed by many of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rightwing allies. Sarkozy has said the head-to-toe garment is unwelcome on French soil. The leader of his party…
Tariq Ramadan: Voters were drawn to the cause by a manipulative appeal to popular fears and emotions. Posters featured a woman wearing a burka with the minarets drawn as weapons on a colonised Swiss flag. The claim was made that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Swiss values. (The UDC has in the past demanded my…
Mouvement Réformateur president, Didier Reynders, announced a desire to ban all religious signs in Belgian public schools. Other political parties have not agreed to the recommendation.
The latest poll by Politieke Barometer indicates that support for Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV party has dropped in the last month. Polls suggested last month that the party would take 32 seats in a parliamentary election, a figure which has dropped to 24. Meanwhile, research by Synovate for television show Nova shows that almost 40%…
To listen to Europe’s far right, it would be easy to conclude that the continent is poised for another round of bitter conflict with a centuries-old adversary. “The first Islamic invasion of Europe was stopped at [the battle of] Poitiers in 732. The second was halted at the gates of Vienna in 1683. Now we…
