islamophobia

As “International Burn a Koran Day” is close….

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As long as this is a work of a weird and marginal pastor and his community, I would not mind much. There are always cases like this. Some Muslims are not respectful to other religions’ sacred things, too. I suppose Terry Jones’ act itself is not that significant but many people are anxious because of the rising Islamophobia and this is a tiny reflection of  that…

update:

Pastor of Florida church cancels plans to burn Qur’an, later reconsiders

from Wikinews

The leader of a Gainesville, Florida church announced yesterday that the church had cancelled its plan to burn copies of the Qur’an on Saturday, but later stated that he had reconsidered his decision. Earlier yesterday, Pastor Terry Jones said that the Dove World Outreach Center would cancel the burning of the Islamic holy book, stating that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, had agreed to relocate Park51, a mosque and community center to be located a few hundred meters away from the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

QURAN BURNING cartoons by all the top cartoonists!

Quran-burning pastor was expelled from German church

from FP Passport by Joshua Keating

It turns out the Florida Pastor Terry Jones, who plans to host an “International Burn a Koran Day” event at his chuch on Sept. 11, has an interesting history in Europe as well. From Der Spiegel:

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Euro roundup: Barroso’s ?State of the Union? speech….

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Barroso?s ?State of the Union? speech: A comedy of errors (The trailer) by Grahnlaw Part of our common European cultural heritage is The Comedy of Errors, by the great William Shakespeare. Then we have a comedy of errors, by and for us lesser mortals, ?a dramatic work in which the action usually features a series … Read more

A video: Anti-muslim Rally at Ground Zero

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A man walks through the crowd at the Ground Zero protest and is mistaken as a Muslim. The crowd turns on him and confronts him. The man in the blue hard hat calls him a coward and tries to fight him. The tall man who I think was one of the organizers tried to get … Read more

Rene Cuperus: Christian-democrats prefer islamophobic populists

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Christian-democrats prefer islamophobic populists from Social Europe Journal by Rene Cuperus In the Netherlands, like in Belgium, the formation of a new cabinet is underway. In these small, but ultracomplex coalition countries,  it takes weeks and weeks to form governments.  Cabinet formation is a giant Sudoku puzzle. What’s behind Sarkozy’s crackdown on the Roma? from … Read more

Rice University ends an experiment of all-digital model of scholarly publishing

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Abandoning an Experiment Rice University Press is being shut down next month, ending an experiment in an all-digital model of scholarly publishing. While university officials said that they needed to make a difficult economic decision to end the operation, they acted against the recommendations of an outside review team that had urged Rice to bolster … Read more

In Switzerland, Fascism seems to be getting ground…

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last updated: 30 Nov 2009- 02:30

Even fundamentalist Islamic countries did not vote about the shape of religious institutions…

It is a sad day. The referendum result made me really angry first but now sadness prevails. This is such a stupid referendum and a stupid result. Switzerland is known to be a peaceful and civilized place and whatever the reasons behind the ban, it just doesn’t fit. How come a country like Switzerland can do something like that? It is basically beyond reason. As a Swiss friend of mine, Ariane Beldi, stated in Facebook, this small, rich and civilized country declared itself to be the first officially anti-Muslim country in Europe! Discrimination against Muslims has become unashamedly constitutional… My goodness. Again in Ariane’s words “in their haste to protect the Judeo-Christian heritage against Islam, a good deal of people seem to be forgetting some essential elements of this heritage, like intellectual rigour, rationality, honnesty, tolerance, etc…”

Some Eurobloggers reacted fast and they deserve an applause. A growing roundup follows…

Swiss appear to back minaret ban

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition
Projections from exit polls suggest Swiss voters have backed a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets.

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