Oct
Austrian police on Monday fined a French businessman under a controversial face-covering ban. Algerian-origin Rashid Nekkaz became the first person to be fined under the law, which came into force on Oct. 1 despite objections from Muslim groups. Nekkaz covered his face with banknotes and photos of the country’s foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz. Protesting against […]
Oct
Denmark will join other European countries banning full-face covering, including Islamic veils such as the niqab or burqa. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of Denmark’s liberal party that leads a center-right governing coalition says a law proposal was not aimed at any religions or a ban of scarfs, turbans or kippa, the traditional Jewish skull cap. Ellemann-Jensen spoke […]
Oct
Migrant families fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East to find shelter in Greece are suffering new wounds due to a problem in Athens: the lack of a cemetery for Muslims. “I never had a chance to go to my baby’s funeral. It was buried miles away,” Muhammed Leggar, a 33-year-old Palestinian refugee who fled […]
Oct
Austria enforced a law banning full-face Muslim veils such as the burqa or niqab in public spaces on Sunday. The law also restricts the use of medical face masks, clown makeup and party masks in public. The Austrian government has said the law, which mandates that faces be visible from the hairline to the chin, […]
Sep
The Swiss National Council, the parliament’s lower house, voted with a narrow majority against financing of mosques from abroad and for expanding general transparency of the mosques’ financial backing. According to the Federal Assembly’s website, 94 members of the parliament voted in favor of the decision, with 89 voting against it. The vote took place on Tuesday. The new legislation, proposed by the right-wing Lega dei Ticinesi party, bans […]
Sep
On Tuesday, Danish Immigration, Integration and Housing Minister Inger Stojberg published a polemic portrayal of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad on social media. The caricature portrays the religion’s founder with a bomb fuse burning down on his turban and was one of the dozen published by the right-wing Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 that caused international outcry […]
Sep
Dutch parliament refused on Thursday Denk Party’s request to discuss the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey, which found that Muslims in the Netherlands experience discrimination at the highest rate among EU member states. According to the results of the U.S.-based FRA survey, the Muslim community in the Netherlands is more widely discriminated against […]
Sep
A Czech appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that went against a Somali student who accused a nursing school of discrimination because she wears a hijab. Ayan Jamaal Ahmednuur demanded an apology and 60,000 koruna ($2,750) in compensation but the Prague 10 district court ruled in January there was no evidence of discrimination. […]
Sep
The German parliament’s upper house, the Bundesrat, passed new rules to prevent drivers from covering their faces to avoid speeding tickets in a move that some claim unfairly targets female Muslim drivers. “The rule of law requires that only drivers can be held accountable. That presumes that they can be identified,” the German Transport Ministry said, […]
Sep
Dutch Muslims are among the European Muslims with the lowest level of attachment to the country they are living in, a major survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) shows. The vast majority of Muslims in the EU are integrated in the countries they live in and have a high level of […]
