Bradford: The British city which is host to a large Asian community, has been a Labour Party stronghold for 100 years. However, in the Bradford West by-election George Galloway, the outspoken British politician, gained a landslide victory against Labour’s Pakistani Muslim candidate Imran Hussain, thanks to the unwavering support of the Asian Muslim community. The results were received as a blow to labour leader Ed Miliband who had…
Canada Vancouver (Canada) : Multifaith Metro Vancouver is a place of high rates of intermarriage and inter-ethnic dating. Islam, now the second largest religion in Canada, teaches that it is sinful for Muslim women, but not Muslim men, to marry outside the faith. Professor Yvonne Haddad, a prominent Islamic scholar at the University of Massachussets, says that Canadian census figures, which are far more detailed than U.S. census data,…
Switzerland Geneva: The Federation of Swiss Islamic Organizations (FIDS) and the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland (KIOS) announced recently their intention to merge and create a “religious parliament” in order to represent the Muslims of Switzerland and receive official recognition from the state. Andreas Tunger-Zanetti, specialist of Islam and coordinator of the Center for Religious Studies at the University of Lucerne, believes however that there are still too many obstacles in…
Muslims number 2.6 million, much against their own estimates of seven million. American Muslims grew in number over the past decade, outnumbering Jews for the first time in most of the Midwest and part of the South, while most mainline churches lost adherents, according to a census of American religions released recently. The number of adherents of Islam rose to 2.6 million in 2010 from…
A bill designed to prevent Kansas courts or government agencies from making decisions based on Islamic or other foreign legal codes has cleared the state Legislature after a contentious debate about whether the measure upholds American values or appeals to prejudice against Muslims. The Senate approved the bill on May 11 on a 33-3 vote. The House had approved it, 120-0, earlier in the week. The measure goes next to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who…
A poll by L’institut de sondages OpinionWay suggests that in the second round of voting in the French presidential elections on May 6, 93% of Muslims voted for Presidentelect Hollande. 59% of those polled voted for Hollande in the first round of voting. “It is the mark of a true rejection of Nicolas Sarkozy,” said Julien Goarant, research director at Opinionway. Sarkozy’s attempts to woo Far-right voters and…
The Netherlands may drop the planned ban on the burqa and on dual nationality which are currently making their way through the national parliament. The change comes with the fall of the minority government, as those aspects of government policy influenced by the presence of the anti-Islam PVV (Freedom Party) enter into renegotiation. Notably, MPs have implored outgoing Interior Minister Liesbeth Spies (CDA) to eliminate the country’s planned burqa ban.…
France’s first left-wing President in nearly 20 years, Francois Hollande has unveiled a government that includes three Muslim ministers. Of the 34 ministers in Hollande’s government, three are Muslims. They include Najat Vallaud- Belkacem, Yamina Benguigui and Kader Arif. Morocco born Belkacem, 34, has been appointed as minister for women’s rights, a position long missing from the French government. The second Muslim Minister, Yamina Benguigui, Junior Minister for French Nationals Abroad…
While the debate about Muslim integration in Europe seems dominated by fears and division, Berlin-based writer Julia Hoffmann highlights one German effort to help promote diversity in the public sector. One of these initiatives is “Berlin needs you!”, a campaign borne out of the need to support immigrant youth, including 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants, in Berlin. The majority of participants come from Muslim backgrounds, and the programme helps…
In contrast with a predominantly negative public image, a new study commissioned by the German Islam Conference and carried on by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the Center for Turkey Studies and Integration Research, shows that the majority of Muslim Imams have a favorable attitude to dialogue with German society and authorities. Moreover, besides religious consultancy, Islamic Communities provide important social services, which have an impact on…
