Antwerp: Sharia Sisters responsible for false charges of sexual abuse

Disclaimer: I'm not coming out of retirement.. but I thought this was interesting, and couldn't find an English source to show people.

The story started when a teacher was accused of sexually abusing kindergarten kids in the Antwerp school De Blokkendoos, this past June.  For days parents protested outside the school, and finally the school was forced to close a week ahead of the summer vacation. The teacher and administration of the school also received death threats and had to go into hiding.  The case has not been officially closed, but the Mayor of Antwerp Bart De Wever recently announced that the teacher had been wrongly accused.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Brussels: Six people charged in deadly exorcism of Muslim woman

Brussels: Six people charged in deadly exorcism of Muslim woman

Italy: First Muslim televangelist show

Italy: First Muslim televangelist show

Via AKI:

Italy's first Muslim televangelist show debuted several weeks ago.  The show, named 'Min al-Dakhil Rumia' (from the Land of the Romans), is broadcast on RTB Brescia and via satellite, and targets European Muslims.  The show is hosted by Imam Abu Ammar al-Sudani, an Italian Muslim preacher and activist.

The imam wants to offer true Islamic television.  Abu Ammar says they started the show in order to talk about the role of Islam in the West and in Italy, from a a social, cultural and religious point of view.  The show also features reports on Italian Muslims from all over the country.

The show is currently funded by Gulf countries.  Abu Ammar says the upcoming episodes will also be sponsored by Italian companies.  The imam says that the first two episodes were received well, and that he got congratulatory phone calls from Morocco, Egypt and France.  

Ireland: Becoming a hub for Islamic finance

Ireland: Becoming a hub for Islamic finance

Via thejournal.ie:

Ireland is one of many countries which has begun to look at Islamic finance as a way to help rebuild the financial services sector. Already Ireland is a base for 20 per cent of Islamic funds based outside of the Middle East, and the plan is to expand that even further.

“To someone like myself who has no particular expertise in the area, Islamic finance looks like a good fit for Ireland,” Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told an audience during a speech last month.

Germany: Malaysians to bring Islamic investment

Germany: Malaysians to bring Islamic investment


Via DW:

Islamic investing represents a 1.2 trillion-euro market. Now one Malaysian firm wants to bring the trend to Germany. Others have tried and failed before, so it could be a struggle.

Confident and professional, the female chief executive of Malaysia-based CIMB-Principal recently gave a press conference in Frankfurt about the only registered Islamic investment fund in Germany.

With uncovered hair, red lipstick and silver earrings, Noripah Kamso said, "I want to share the new i-word with you. It doesn't stand for iPad, iPhone or inflation–but for Islamic banking."

(source)

Sweden: City slammed for 'special treatment' of Muslim kids

Sweden: City slammed for 'special treatment' of Muslim kids

Via the Local:

A Swedish school district has sparked outrage for striking a deal with local Muslim groups ensuring Muslim students can skip out on overnight class trips and Muslim girls don't have to be naked when showering at school.

UK: Imam caught on camera advocating female circumcision

UK: Imam caught on camera advocating female circumcision

Via the Daily Mail:

Mohammed Abdul, the Imam of a Bristol mosque, was filmed urging a follower to take women and girls abroad so they can be circumcised legally.

(...)

The footage was obtained by an undercover reporter working for the Sunday Times newspaper, who posed as a Muslim seeking advice.

Russia: Chechen Leaders Slam Proposed Creation Of Shari'a Courts

Russia: Chechen Leaders Slam Proposed Creation Of Shari'a Courts

Meanwhile, Khasavov fled Russia after receiving death threats.

Via RFE/RL:

Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov and Chechen mufti Sultan-hadji Mirzayev have both harshly criticized the proposal by Chechen legal scholar Dagir Khasavov to establish Shari'a courts in Russia for the benefit of those Russian Muslims who do not want to “get bogged down in the Russian legal system,” which they do not trust.

London: Don’t ban alcohol — we'll get blame, say Muslim students

London: Don’t ban alcohol — we'll get blame, say Muslim students

Via the London Evening Standard:

Muslim students at a university considering banning alcohol from parts of its campus have hit out at the plan — fearing they will be blamed for the move.

Students at London Metropolitan University said banning alcohol in the name of Muslims will cause tension on campus, divide the community, and could be exploited by far-Right groups such as the English Defence League.

UK : Taxi driver fired after refusing to drive passengers with alcohol

UK : Taxi driver fired after refusing to drive passengers with alcohol

Via the Daily Mail:

A Muslim cab driver has been fired after he threw out a family carrying an unopened bottle of wine because he said 'it's against my religion.'

(...)

The company's former chairman, Fazal Rahim, who has also driven for them for almost a quarter of a century, said the driver's attitude was unprofessional.

'I am a practising Muslim, like a lot of the drivers. This was not a decision based on race or religion, however, but about being a professional taxi driver,' Mr Rahim said.

'As taxi drivers, we cannot be moral policemen. If I picked a customer up from a pub, should I ask him if he has been drinking? Of course not.

(source)

Utrecht: Muslims censor sexy posters

Utrecht: Muslims censor sexy posters

Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Kosovo: 'Islam-lite' Kosovars determined to stay secular

Via the Irish Times:

“We are nominal Muslims,” says Dren, a researcher at a Pristina- based NGO. “We don’t go to the mosque much; we drink alcohol and eat pork. That’s just the Kosovar way.”

However many within Kosovo’s secular-minded majority are uneasy over what appears to be a drift towards more conservative interpretations of Islam in some parts of the country.

“You see more women wearing hijab and more men wearing beards,” says Brikena Hoxha of the Kosovo Stability Initiative, a Pristina-based think tank. “This is new for us.”

The emergence of an increasingly vocal minority of devout Muslims has unsettled those who would prefer that the majority faith in Kosovo – which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – remains “Islam-lite” as one Pristina resident puts it.

(source)

Netherlands: Handshake Muslim loses court case

Netherlands: Handshake Muslim loses court case

Via DutchNews:

Rotterdam council was right not to offer lawyer Mohammed Enait the job of client manager after he refused to shake hands with women, a court in The Hague said on Tuesday afternoon.

Enait had applied for the job at the social services department but said he would not shake hands with women on religious grounds. However, he would greet them in another respectful fashion, he said.

(source)

Belgium: Moroccan in jail for circumcising son

Belgium: Moroccan in jail for circumcising son

Via Volkskrant:

A 23 year old Moroccan was sentenced to jail for circumcising his two year old son. A court in Tongeren, next to Maastricht, sentenced the man to two years (one of which is conditional). He also has to pay 7500 euro compensation to his son and the baby's mother.

The man circumcised his son, since he couldn't accept that his son wouldn't be raised according to Moroccan values. The mother, a Flemish woman, withheld her pregnancy from him, because she didn't want the kid to be raised as a Muslim.

After the circumcision the boy was successfully treated in a hospital and there are no remaining injuries.

Switzerland: Federal Court rules segregated swimming not a religious freedom right

Switzerland: Federal Court rules segregated swimming not a religious freedom right

Via the Local:

(...)

The parents argued that, in accordance with the teachings of the Koran, they wanted to instil a sense of shame in their children before they reached puberty. Mixed swimming lessons in primary school, the family claimed, would be incompatible with such an aim.

Following the family’s appeal of the original Administrative Court verdict, the Federal Court decided to uphold the fine. The court stated that the obligation to participate in mixed swimming classes did not represent a significant assault on the family’s religious freedom.

(source)

Germany: Judge applies Sharia to dowry case

Germany: Judge applies Sharia to dowry case

Via De Stentor:

A German court settled a dispute Monday by applying Shariah law. The case in question involved a Turkish father who demanded the return of gold jewelry worth 12,000 euro from his ex-daughter-in-law. He had given her the jewelry as a dowry, but she divorced two months after the wedding.

The judge in Limburg an der Lahn, between Bonn and Frankfurt, ruled that the woman may keep the jewelry. He said the dowry enables a woman to be financially independent after a divorce, regardless of how long the marriage lasted. He said this ruling is based on the rulings of Turkish courts.

The court said that the rationale of keeping a divorced woman from poverty is in accordance with the German constitution. A spokesperson did not rule out that the ruling would have been different for a similar dispute between Germans.

UK: Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying

UK: Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying

Via the Telegraph:

Alzheimer's sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her.

But agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge, said they would have to wait.

Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing: "It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to wait for him to finish."

(source)

UK: Did Baroness Cox warn against Shariah law?

UK: Did Baroness Cox warn against Shariah law?

The Daily Mail and the Sun both had online articles about this which were pulled. Anybody know why?

Via Zee News:

Brutal punishments like whipping and stoning could become widespread in Britain if Islamic Sharia law is allowed to thrive, a member of the House of Lords has warned.

Baroness Cox said a growing number of British Muslims are shunning the official court system in favour of Sharia councils to settle legal disputes.

(source)

More here (h/t DW).

Chechnya: Islamic revival is becoming less voluntary

Chechnya: Islamic revival is becoming less voluntary

Via USA Today:

The process of Islamization was voluntary in the beginning. Women who wore a headscarf were rewarded with a prize. Now all women and girls, regardless of their religion, must observe Islamic dress code by wearing a head covering, long sleeves, and skirts below the knee in public schools and government buildings. Those who refuse become targets.

Human Rights Watch released a report last year documenting a spate of attacks on women without head coverings. The females reported being harassed, some physically harmed for not observing the Islamic dress code.

Alcohol is now all but banned, and authorities encourage taking multiple wives. Gender-segregated hair salons and gyms are becoming the norm. Many Muslims here object to what they call an improper interpretation of Islamic law.

(source)

Sweden: Court disallows teen's Sharia marriage

Sweden: Court disallows teen's Sharia marriage

Via the Local:

A Swedish court has ruled that a 17-year-old girl's marriage by a Sharia court in the West Bank is invalid in Sweden, overturning a lower court's decision.

The girl, who is now 19-years-old, was married in June 2010 in a Sharia court located in the West Bank town of Hebron, ten days before her 18th birthday, according to Swedish court documents.

When she and her husband moved to Sweden they sought to have their marriage registered with the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).

But the agency denied the couple's application, arguing the marriage couldn't be registered in Sweden because the woman hadn't turned 18 at the time of the wedding.

(source)