Norway's Muslim Immigrants Attend Classes on Western Attitudes to Women

Every asylum seeker in Norway must attend classes on female rights and respect for women. The lessons were made compulsory after a string of sex attacks by immigrants in the western city of Stavanger. With exclusive access to a class in action in the town of Moi, 65 miles south-east of Stavanger, Jenny Kleeman meets the students and asks whether western values can really be taught in a classroom

Suspected 'Honor Murders' Shock Canada

Douglas Murray - Muslim Immigration into Europe

'We Are Not Really Germans': New Study Looks at Challenges Faced by Germany's Muslims
Many women in Germany who wear the headscarf say they experience barriers to employment, according to a new survey published by the Open Society Institute. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: It's no secret that many immigrants have a hard time in Germany. A new study has found that women wearing headscarves have a particularly hard time on the job market and a quarter of those with Turkish backgrounds face discrimination when looking for work.

It is early afternoon at Internet Treffpunkt, a convenience store in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood in Berlin that is home to many Turks and other minorities. Hedi Dashti, the store's proprietor, is busy. One customer hands over her parcel to send through his DHL counter. Another customer buys cigarettes. The door swings open, ushering in the blustery winter wind, and a third customer waves hello.

Dashti -- an immigrant from Iraq who fled to Germany 20 years ago with his family -- speaks to customers in English, German and his mother tongue, Kurdish. He has adjusted to life in Germany and made German friends, while also maintaining his religious identity: Dashti is a practicing Muslim, abstains from eating pork and observes Friday prayers.

And despite occasionally feeling like an outsider, he really wishes he had German citizenship. ''We are not really Germans, but Germany is our country,'' Dashti said.

It is a dilemma shared by many of Germany's approximately four million Muslims. And a new survey supports the widespread feeling of dislocation that many of them feel. >>> Sheila Lalwani in Berlin | Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Downturn Draws a Veil Over Islam
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — Europe’s economic crisis has subordinated its other epochal problem — shaping a future life with Muslim immigrants and Islam — into a place where there’s a temptation to pretend it’s vanished.

There are no headlines around Europe these days like the front-page one in New York last weekend, reporting that minorities are hardest hit by real estate foreclosures in the city.

Here, instead, it’s low-level, reflexively standard stuff: a story or two, depending on a newspaper’s basic political take, pointing to encroachments on traditional national habit by Muslim immigrants, or suggesting the state may be over-responding (giving in, according to what you read) to demands for what’s often cast as their separate but equal status parallel to the mainstream.

One story last week was about a Muslim cook who said wearing plastic gloves and using tongs was not enough to protect him from the possibility of being splattered while preparing pork sausages for breakfast. Feeling discriminated against, he sued. Another reported Christians’ concern about the appointment of a Muslim, described as a “controversial” producer who commissioned documentaries with a pro-Islam bias, as chief of religious broadcasting at the BBC.

There are two facts below the surface here.

The first says that Europe is not paying much attention and certainly not talking about how its Great Recession is affecting the stability of the communities of vulnerable, largely unskilled Muslim immigrants who make up an increasing proportion of Europe’s cities.

Among Europe’s existential concerns, immigration does not come under the common policy control of the European Union. That frequently leaves individual countries hiding from neighbors’ problems concerning issues they can’t resolve themselves.

And it underpins a flight from solidarity, effective action, and often, Europe’s shared reality. Not ideal.

The second fact is that on the level of daily experience, an increasing number of white Europeans believe Muslim immigrants want integration with an asterisk — the asterisk providing an all-access pass to the welfare state, but with a mark-the-box list of opt-outs or variances from many of its obligations.

The predicament now is that as economic realities harshen, implying more stress and tension for (and emanating from) its newcomers, Europe seems no better prepared or certain about what needs to be done. >>> By John Vinocur | Monday, May 18, 2009

Muslim Immigrants Attack Three Jewish Teens in Paris
HAARETZ: Three Jewish teens were attacked by a group of Muslim African immigrants in Paris on Saturday evening, a French police spokeswoman said Sunday.

The Jewish teens, ages 17 and 18, who have been identified as Dan Nebet, Kevin Bitan and David Boaziz, are leaders of the Bnei Akiva youth group in Paris' 19th District.

Thiery Nebet, Dan's father, told Haaretz over the phone that according to what his son had said, as they were walking down the street, "Four or five Arabs of African origin started to throw walnuts at Kevin. When he went up to them to ask them why they did it, they surrounded him and knocked him down. Kevin and David moved in and very quickly more Arabs joined in and started to beat the three with their fists and with chains."

The Jewish teens were hospitalized, one with a broken nose and jaw and all three with bruises, and filed a police report after their release. Police opened an investigation and are looking for the Muslim teenagers allegedly responsible for the attacks.

According to the chairman of the Jewish Students Union in France, Raphael Haddad, barrages of stones were thrown at the three teens during the attack. Haddad also said the incident occured on Petit Street in the 19th District, not far from where a 17-yea-ar-old Jewish youth was attacked and seriously injured by immigrants on June 21.

The attack is one of a long series of racial attacks in Europe in general and in France in particular. France has Western Europe's largest population of both Jews and Muslims. Muslim Immigrants Attack Three Jewish Teens in Paris >>> By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and DPA | September 8, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>

Is Berlin Ready to Explode?
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Following the violent death of a Moroccan teenager in Cologne, hundreds of immigrants have taken to the streets in nightly demonstrations to protest what they see as evidence of their second-class status in Germany. Police warn the city could be ready to explode.

The owner of an electronics shop on Cologne's Kalker Hauptstrasse had rolled down the shutters on the windows in case there was unrest. Now they have photos of a 17-year-old Moroccan boy taped to them. The teenager, whose name was Salih, was killed in front of the shop two weeks ago.

The sidewalk is a sea of candles as hundreds of people chant: "Salih! Salih! We want justice!" They feel that Salih was one of them -- a youth from an immigrant family.

For the police, the case is clear cut. According to their version of events, Salih allegedly wanted to mug a 20-year-old German man, who tried to defend himself. But he panicked and pulled out a pocketknife that he plunged into Salih's heart with an unlucky stab. Prosecutors said it was a clear case of self-defense, and there are witnesses. But none of that matters any longer.

Every night last week, up to 300 protestors gathered at the spot where Salih died to demand "justice" instead of letting his killer walk free. They are protesting against "racism in Germany" -- but since it appears clear that this case involves self-defense, it's obviously about more than just the unfortunate Salih. It's more about how immigrants and their children feel they are currently being treated in Germany. Immigrants Protest Death of Moroccan Teenager in Cologne >>> By Barbara Schmid and Andreas Ulrich

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Paul Belien, Editor Brussels Journal and Atlas






Mark Alexander