Brahms, beer and Beethoven are German, but can a Muslim head scarf be German too? Islamic communities throughout this country are beginning to wonder. What it means to be German is an excruciating riddle, not something casually broached in a cafe. But efforts to sharpen national identity through new citizenship tests have caused a furor…
About 200 people held a free-speech demonstration in central London on Saturday, with several carrying posters of the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that infuriated much of the Muslim world. Protest organizers withdrew their open invitation for the protesters to display the Prophet Muhammad cartoons on Thursday. Peter Risdon, an organizer of the March…
By Elaine Ganley PARIS – A powerful Islamic organization alleged Thursday that officials were abusing a law banning religious symbols from schools by expelling Muslim girls who were wearing printed bandannas, not Islamic head scarves. The head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France urged girls expelled for wearing bandannas to take their cases…
PARIS – A powerful Muslim organization said yesterday that officials were abusing a new French law banning religious symbols from schools by expelling Muslim girls who were wearing printed bandannas, not Islamic head scarves. The head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France urged girls expelled for wearing bandannas to seek court action. Seven…
By John R. Bowen Headscarves are back in the headlines in France this year. Now the scarves are collectively called le voile (the veil), suggesting a full facial covering, rather than, more accurately, foulards islamiques (Islamic scarves), the term used in past years. The stakes have been raised since 1989, when the scarves first sparked…
