Religious controversies

A parade in the city of Braunschweig, Northern Germany, has been canceled due to a terror alert.

The spectacular event was due to begin at 12:20 local time (11:20 GMT), but "reliable state sources" became aware of a "concrete threat", according to DW.

A senior European commissioner warned Feb. 2 about rising levels of  extremism and intolerance across the 28-nation bloc, targeting Jews, Muslims, homosexuals and even women.        

"You will discover hell on earth, and will die alone" -- that is the stark message from the French government in a new social media campaign aimed at discouraging would-be jihadists.
      

BiH imam targeted by radical Islamists

Police are continuing their search for the radical Islamists who attacked BiH imam Selvedin Beganovic.

Radical Islamists recruit people from the Balkans to join their fights in Iraq and Syria. [AFP]

Scores of German police raided alleged Islamist sites in Berlin early on Jan. 16, arresting two men suspected of being part of a group planning to carry out an attack in Syria, police said.

Around 250 police officers carried out the raids on 11 sites in the German capital, arresting the two men of Turkish origin aged 41 and 43, police said in a statement.

More than 200 German police officers raided suspected Islamist sites in and around Berlin early on Jan. 16, arresting an alleged leader of a group planning to carry out an attack in Syria, police said.
   

Since the cruel attacks in Paris that killed 17 innocent human beings, Turks are discussing what really happened and why. Like on any other issue, there is a spectrum of views.

On the nicer end of the spectrum, there are millions of Turks who condemned the terrorists and offered solidarity with Charlie Hebdo and the French people. They have done the right thing.

The terror attacks in Paris have resulted in much commentary among Islamists and Islamic intellectuals and commentators in Turkey. There is little that is new in Islamist quarters, of course. One reads the usual litany, if one may use the term, blaming the West for crimes against the Islamic world and its wily designs on the Middle East.

Islamophobia is not the only right-wing trend rising in Europe: It is just one of the results of escalating xenophobia as anti-Semitic tendencies are also on the rise, according to Turkey's ambassador to France With Turkish authorities constantly warning of Islamophobia, the Turkish Ambassador to Paris, Hakk?

It is sad that innocent people have been murdered brutally. It is sad that the murderers did it in the name of a great religion. It is sad that the sons and daughters of poor immigrants turn out to be evildoers in the name of a violent radicalism that defines itself as "Islamism" and/or "jihadism."