Criticism of Islam

It is becoming more difficult to fight Islamophobia in Europe, as mainstream political parties compete for votes with the far-right, Gün Kut, a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) since 2010, has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The holdover official responsible for implementing former President Barack Obama’s failed “Countering Violent Extremism” policy at the Department of Homeland Security finally resigned just before DHS Secretary John Kelly departed for the White House.

Photo: AP

The threat of violent Islamist extremism has been growing in Kosovo, the US State Department said in its latest annual report on global terrorism.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has slammed the Education Ministry for adding the concept of jihad as part of "Islamic law" in school books.

"They are trying to install an education of values based on jihad," CHP spokesperson Bülent Tezcan said after the party's Central Executive Board meeting on July 19.

The final version of Turkey's national school curriculum has left evolution out and added the concept of "jihad" as part of Islamic law in books, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz said on July 18.

The Bosniak member of Bosnia's presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, has called on the country's institutions to protect imams [Muslim clerics] after so-called Islamic State recently its supporters to kill Bosnian Muslim religious leaders by shooting them or cutting their throats. 

The fear of being targeted by terrorists has forced some foreign embassy staff in Greece to change the traditional blue license plates on their vehicles that mark them out as belonging to diplomats in favor of regular ones used by the local population.

The Youth and Sports Ministry has prepared a list of digital games that contain "harmful" elements for youngsters, raising eyebrows for including popular games like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Pacman, daily Milliyet reported on June 26. 

Islamic terrorism and jihadist attacks against the west has unfortunately rapidly increased since the creation of groups like Al Quaeda and more recently the Islamic State (ISIS).

Roughly one fifth of people now living are Muslims. Their societies are located in every corner of the globe and vary in language, ethnicity, political ideology, nationality, culture, and wealth. Yet we tend to imagine this 1.5 billion people, despite such diversity, as a cohesive and united whole, defined above all by their Muslim identity.