News of the week in 10 bullets

Muslims in the news in 10 bullets

  • Dutch Muslims established Muslim Foster Child to stimulate foster care among Muslim communities.
  • Like in previous months much ado about controversial (often ‘salafist’) preachers. This time about Esam Alowed who was scheduled to lecture at a mosque in the city of Almere. Despite protests from the mayor and the Freedom Party the lecture continued as planned.
  • The Party for Animals has announced it is going to introduce a new law to ban ritual slaughter of animals. A previous plan failed in 2012 as it would restrict the freedom of religion too much. This time the plan will be slightly adjusted.
  • The number of pupils on publicly funded Islamic schools has risen from 9.000 in 2010 to 11.000 in 2014. There are 49 Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands (and one secondary school).
  • A petition has been launched to protest a new proposal for banning face-covering.
  • The municipality of Amsterdam is going to contribute to financing the costs for security of houses of prayer as the costs are often too high for the organisations that manage these houses.
  • The Public Prosecutor’s office has announced to continue with the trial against Wilders.
  • From 12 June onwards the Fatih mosque in Oldenzaal will hold a test run for its public call to prayer on Friday afternoon. It will continue for three months and after the different stakeholders will decide how and if to continue.
  • The municipality of Leusden will restrict the possibilities for marrying for free as it costs too much. According to a leaked internal email in particular Muslims make use of this service.
  • Platform INS holds a conference on islamophobia and discrimination on 15 June.

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