The representation of diverse groups in politics and policy-making process constitutes one of the pillars of democratic regimes.
Yet, Muslim minorities of European countries face a considerable lack of political representation.
Only a few of conservative Muslims manage to get a position in national politics and legislative institutions.
Moreover, the presence of Muslim deputies in some European states’ parliaments does not automatically lead to the political...
Aisha Yaqoob is American Muslim hijab-wearing woman who is the 2018 Democratic candidate for the 97th District in the Georgia House of Representatives. The daughter of immigrants, Yaqoob, 25, is one of the nearly 90 Muslims running for public office nationwide. But facing that unprecedented number of Muslim candidates running in the midterms are perhaps the most Islamophobic US elections ever. She is one of those candidates who face such hate, particularly on her social media pages.
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The Turkish-Islamic cultural federation TICF, a foundation that speaks for 144 Turkish mosques in the Netherlands, demands that Twitter block the account of PVV leader Geert Wilders.
According to the TICF, many of Wilders’ statements are contrary to Twitter’s terms of use. If Twitter does not block the populist politician’s account, the foundation will go to court, lawyer Ejder Kose said to newspaper AD.
The TICF also plans to file charges against Twitter in four Islamic...
Mark Harris, the former pastor at Charlotte’s First Baptist Church and a Republican candidate for the U.S. House, said in a 2011 sermon that there would be no peace in Jerusalem until Jews and Muslims convert to Christianity.
The content of the sermon and others that warn against Islam and the threat of Islamic rule were first reported by CNN on Friday, just days before Election Day on Tuesday, where Harris is locked in a tight race against Democratic candidate Dan McCready. Harris,...
Muslims will no longer be able to perform prayers at the mosque located inside the compound of India's national landmark Taj Mahal, except on Fridays when the mosque is only open to locals, due to a decision by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) reported on November 5.
According to the Times of India daily, ASI officials said the order implements a Supreme Court ruling decided in July.
The move effectively bans non-residents from Islamic prayers, also known as salah or...
The UN Human Rights Committee has demanded that France review its law banning the burqa, claiming that it violates human rights. Christine Douglass Williams, a human rights activist and former director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, explained to Sputnik why such demands pose a danger.
Christine Williams said in an interview with Sputnik that the UN is exceeding its mandate with demands that France's burqa ban be lifted. According to her, such laws have been adopted by over...
Police have confirmed an incident in which a group dressed up like members of the Ku Klux Klan in a Co Down town is being investigated as a hate crime.
Photographs of the group outside an Islamic Centre in Newtownards emerged online over the weekend.
The incident was reported to the PSNI on October 28 afternoon at around 5pm, about an incident on Saturday night where a group was seen wearing the distinctive pointed-hooded costumes in the vicinity of Greenwell Street.
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Cathy Rehner, also known as Sara (her name taken during her conversion to Islam), disappeared on May 9, 2016. The young woman had to go to a professional meeting in Largentière, Ardeche. But then she did not give any sign of life.
Two years later, in May 2018, her ex-partner finally admitted to having killed her and left her in a forest.
Now, Cathy Rehner's relatives who must finally recover her remains, wish to bury him in the Muslim square of the Aubenas cemetery.
It...
Italy’s far-right League party intervened on October 28 to block efforts by a Muslim association to turn a former hospital chapel into a mosque.
The Muslim group last week made the highest offer for the chapel in the northern city of Bergamo at an auction organized by a local hospital, outbidding the Romanian Orthodox Church which had been using the building for its religious services.
But the project proved short-lived, with League leaders in the wealthy Lombardy region, which...
The UN Human Rights Committee on October 22 criticised France's so-called burqa ban, saying the law "violated" the rights of two women who were fined for wearing full-face veils in public.
The committee called for the women to be compensated and for a review of the 2010 law that forbids people from publicly wearing clothing that conceals their face.
"The French law disproportionately harmed the petitioners' right to manifest their religious beliefs," the committee said in a...
Employees of several pharmacy chains across Sweden increasingly have to contend with the racist attitudes of customers, according to a report from broadcaster SVT.
Pharmacy customers use “the n-word”, make disparaging remarks about Muslims and demand to be serviced by “a Swede”, according to the report.
The pharmacy chain Kronans Apotek has also reported that customers are increasingly demanding to be serviced by ethnic Swedes or telling Muslim employees to remove their...
Brantford police are searching for two suspects after a mosque on Greenwich Street was vandalized with hateful graffiti on October 21.
It happened in the early-morning hours, around 2:20 a.m. at the Brantford Mosque.
Officers say the two suspects spray painted the walls of the mosque and the parking lot with hateful remarks and symbols directed at members of the religious faith.
The suspects are described as young men with slim builds. Both were wearing long pants with...
A new report from the group Muslim Advocates shows that candidates who ran Islamophobic campaigns faced backlash and eventually lost their elections.
The use of anti-Muslim bigotry in political campaigns is a tactic Muslims and Muslim candidates have seen over and over in recent years. Just last week, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) launched a series of Islamophobic and racist attack ads against his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar.
But a new report shows that candidates...
European countries like Denmark, France, Belgium, Bulgaria and Latvia have also banned wearing certain types of face-covering clothing, such as the burqa and niqab in public areas.
On October 18, Algerian authorities published a document called "The duties of employees and public servants in dress codes," that forbids women from wearing full-face veils, or niqabs at work.
The document has also listed instructions to be strictly adhered to, saying that any clothes preventing...
An arsonist convicted of burning down a mosque in the United States last year has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for a crime prosecutors said was motivated by hate.
Marq Perez, 26, was convicted of hate crime and felony arson in July for setting fire to the Victoria Islamic Center in Texas on January 28, 2017.
One person, who was with Perez on the night of the fire, said he was excited and "jumping up and down like a little kid" while watching the mosque burn,...