A former soldier who posted hate speech on Facebook about hanging Muslims and slaughtering refugees was today spared jail. Donna Bowdler avoided prison last September after making vile remarks on the social network about the death of Muslims and destruction of mosques.
But while on bail over those offences, dating from October to December 2015, she made yet more offensive posts, between January and August 2016. She wrote about slaughtering refugees and later said: “Come and have a go...
A Canadian province has passed a controversial religious neutrality law that bars people from wearing face coverings when giving or receiving a public service. Quebec recently expanded the law to include services provided by municipal and public transit services. Women who wear a burqa or a niqab will now have to show their faces while receiving a government service. Quebec's National Assembly passed Bill 62 by a 66-51 vote. The provincial Liberals, who have been in power since 2014, tabled...
The family of a Muslim Marines recruit who died at a military boot camp last year is suing the US government over allegations of Islamophobic hazing and abuse. The lawsuit, which asks for a $100m in compensation, accuses the government of “negligence on multiple levels of command” that led to 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui's death. The Muslim American recruit, who was the son of Pakistani immigrants, fell from the third floor at the camp, and his death was ruled a suicide. He was allegedly the...
Israel has reportedly banned the use of loudspeakers for adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, in a village south of the occupied West Bank on grounds that it "made Jewish settlers uncomfortable." According to Anadolu Agency, Israeli forces raided the village of At-Tuwani located south of the city of al-Khalil and banned the use of loudspeakers. The village had earlier been subjected to provocations by Israeli citizens and troops due to its proximity to the Jewish settlement of Ma'on. Currently...
At a Vienna metro station, two women aged 41 and 26 harassed a young Muslim girl on the grounds that she had violated the burqa ban law, effective October 1, Austrian media reported Friday. Police were called to the scene as confrontation became physical.
Police spokesman Daniel Fürst said in a statement to the press that the covered woman did not resist the police and uncovered her face for identification. The police kept record of the woman, however, as her refusal to comply with...
Hundreds of Jewish settlers on Tuesday forced their way into Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a Palestinian official said. Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for the Jordan-run Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which is responsible for overseeing the city’s Islamic sites, said a total of 537 settlers, backed by Israeli police, have stormed the complex since morning. According to al-Dibs, Jewish groups have called on supporters to converge on Al-Aqsa compound...
Austria’s new ban on the burqa claimed an unusual victim — a man dressed in a shark costume. Since October 1, it has been illegal to wear the full-face veil in public, and breaking the law is punishable with a €150 fine. The law extends to other face coverings, including costumes and even people on motorbikes who protect themselves against the wind with a scarf, according to Die Welt.
A man hired to carry out promotional work by electronics store McShark was stopped by police on...
Hate crimes targeting mosques and other Muslim places of worship across the U.K. more than doubled in the past year, a report said Monday. U.K. police have recorded 110 hate crimes against Muslim places of worship between March and July 2017. The number is more than twice as much as last year, with 47 incidents recorded in the same period. Racist abuse, acts of vandalism at mosques and bomb threats were among the most popular forms of crimes, the Press Association reported, adding that...
A pig’s head was hurled through the window of an Asian family’s home in what is being treated as a hate crime by police. The culprit first smashed the front window of the terraced house in Chapel Road, Hollinwood , Oldham , with a brick. The animal’s head, wrapped in plastic, was then thrown into the lounge. Ajaz Mahmood’s wife, Ghazala Kauser and their four children were in the property at the time. Mr Mahmood’s son, Hammas, aged 14, and daughter, Zeina, 6, were in the front room when the...
The mayor Françoise Schepmans of Sint-Jans Molenbeek, a Muslim of half population, said it would not allow extreme right-wing activity. Schepmans stressed that he does not want Dutch leader Wilders and extreme right-wing Flemish interest party leader Filip De Winter's visit to Molenbeek. If necessary, police will be forced out of county extreme-right wing politicians.
Wilders and Flemish interest (Vlaams Belang) leader Dewinter decided to go to district of Molenbeek in Brussels,...
Critics are decrying a "double standard" in Canadian legislation after Crown prosecutors failed to charge a man accused of a mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque with terrorism-related offences. They say that the absence of terrorism charges against Alexandre Bissonnette demonstrates that it's time to make changes to the criminal code. “If Mohamed, a Muslim, would go see the Islamic State website twice, boom, he will be accused of terrorism, whereas Bissonnette, since the link (to terrorism...
A man faces charges of attempted murder of a Muslim teenager who was stabbed outside a mosque in Birmingham early Saturday. The teenager was put in an induced come after being stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck by 29-year-old Dominic Palmer outside the Maarif-e-Islam Hussainia Mosque. British police said the attack was not terror-related yet the motive was still unclear. West Midlands said they are keeping an "open mind as to whether it was religiously or racially motivated."
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Austria's prohibition on full-face coverings - commonly called the "burqa ban" - went into effect Sunday. The government says the new law helps uphold Austrian values and promotes integration, despite the fact that such veils are rarely seen in public. Women are now banned from hiding their face in public - this includes wearing the burqa, which veils the entire face, and the niqab, which reveals only the eyes. Those who are stopped by police and refuse to take off their veils face a penalty...
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 foreign financing for mosques and implies...
A Muslim surgeon who treated Manchester Arena victims said he has forgiven a man who stabbed him in the neck outside a mosque in a hate crime attack. Consultant Nasser Kurdy, who operated on those injured in the outrage in May, was stabbed from behind with a knife as he walked into Altrincham Islamic Centre in Hale, Cheshire just before 6pm yesterday. The 58-year-old victim suffered a three centimetre wound to the back of his neck and was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital for treatment, where he...