India’s minorities watchdog has received a record number of complaints from Muslims who say they have been prevented from opening bank accounts.

India’s Muslim community is among the poorest in the country.

Some bankers say it is not so much their religious background, but their economic status that makes it hard for Muslims to get banking facilities.

The National Commission of Minorities says that there has been a 100% increase in the number of complaints it has received over the past year from Muslims who say they are being prevented from opening accounts in state-run banks.    »»» BBC News

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The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria’s secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat.

“We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering,” a government official in Damascus told The Associated Press on Monday.

The order affects both public and private universities and aims to protect Syria’s secular identity, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. Hundreds of primary school teachers who were wearing the niqab at government-run schools were transferred last month to administrative jobs, he added.

The ban, issued Sunday by the Education Ministry, does not affect the hijab, or headscarf, which is far more common in Syria than the niqab’s billowing black robes.   »»» Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

Western democracies join Middle East authoritarian regimes like Syria and Eygpt to force women to dress a certain way. That kind of restriction on personal freedom is exactly what the Taliban does in Aghanistan when it forces women to dress a certain way. What a strange and sad irony!

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“We do not think that you should legislate what people can wear or not wear associated with their religious beliefs,” said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

“Here in the United States, we would take a different step to balance security and to respect religious freedom and the symbols that go along with religious freedom,” he said.   »»» Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

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Top officials of the ruling Socialist Party have indicated they will support the proposal by the opposition Popular Party, making a ban likely unless the country’s highest court rules it unconstitutional.   »»» The Associated Press

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We end up with the opposite of what we want. That’s what overkill does.

We’ve learned that lesson in the war on terrorism, but we have yet to in the cultural war on Muslims, which is what niqab banning is all about, notwithstanding the phony rationalizations in France and, sadly, Quebec as well.

The decision by the French parliament to proscribe the niqab/burqa from all public spaces, even streets and markets, goes farther than the Quebec law introduced in March.

The latter bans those wearing the niqab from working for, or receiving services from, government. It denies these taxpayers all schooling, including French language instruction, and non-emergency health care, including regular checkups. But it does not bar them from wearing their face covering.

Yet there’s nothing redeeming about either law, or those contemplated in Belgium and Spain. They are anchored in prejudice — and on shaky legal foundations.    »»» thestar.com (Canada)

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“I happen to think this is a very appropriate place for somebody who wants to build a mosque, because it tells the world that America, and New York City, which is what I’m responsible for, really believes in what we preach,” said Bloomberg on Friday.

The mayor’s comments were perhaps his most forceful on the controversy, which in this election year has quickly become a political football.    »»» NY1.com (U.S.)

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It has been subjected to grotesque distortions the traces of which still endure in the European mind. Even today there are many Westerners for whom Islam can be reduced to three ideas: fanaticism, fatalism and polygamy.

Of course, there does exist a more cultivated public whose ideas about Islam are less deformed; there are still precious few who know that the word islam signifies nothing other than ‘submission to God’.

One symptom of this ignorance is the fact that in the imagination of most Europeans, Allah refers to the divinity of the Muslims, not the God of the Christians and Jews; they are all surprised to hear, when one takes the trouble to explain things to them, that ‘Allah’ means ‘God’, and that even Arab Christians know him by no other name. “   »»» NetMums.com (U.K.)

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Only about 1.5 thousand Muslim are wearing niqab (a veil covering woman’s face) in whole France according to experts. However, the vigilant French democrats, strictly watching over their “values of freedom and progress”, which oblige woman to strip naked, turning her into a humanoid animal to gratify the passions and a reusable sex good, and protection of sodomites and sexual maniacs of all colors and genders, seem concerned about the protection of society against “obscurantism” of Islam.

The parliament of this country has enacted even a whole law prohibiting women on their own will, and because of their religious beliefs to wear veil.

However, apparently, Muslim women of France did not think to give up. After the ban of niqab Muslims devised other way to hide their face, in particular, to wear medical masks.    »»» Kavkazcenter.com (Chechnya)

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Set to one side legal doubts about whether this law is compatible with guarantees of religious freedom and equality, as interpreted by France’s constitutional council. In principle – and, indeed, in the forum of the European court of human rights – the twin test must be whether the measure, first, has a legitimate aim (public security or promotion of gender equality, perhaps) and, second, whether it shows proportionality. Is the measure proportionate to the aim being achieved? This, say legal experts, presents the sticking point.   »»» The Guardian (U.K.)

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Students taking the Masters programme in “Islamic Spiritual Counselling” are now able to qualify with a state-recognised degree. This, Koç believes, shows that the university is well on its way to fulfilling its aim of creating a Muslim academic elite in the Netherlands.

It is a goal that the Islamic University has been pursuing since taking up residence in the centre of Rotterdam in 2003. Its close proximity to a Reformed church and a Catholic church is a reminder that educational, health and social institutions were traditionally organised according to confession in the Netherlands.

“We are working on integrating a Muslim element into the Dutch social structure,” explains Koç. The IUR is intended as part of this process. And whether or not the school can be part of the process in the long term depends very much on official recognition.    »»» altmuslim

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The issue of singing and entertainment is a juristic and social issue in some aspects, and any humble reader of old and contemporary books of jurisprudence is well aware that this issue is controversial and inconclusive. Some scholars consider this religiously prohibited, while others consider it permissible.   »»» Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English ed.)

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A survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, conducted April 7 to May 8, finds that the French public overwhelmingly endorses this measure; 82% approve of a ban on Muslim women wearing full veils in public, including schools, hospitals and government offices, while just 17% disapprove.

Majorities in Germany (71%), Britain (62%) and Spain (59%) would also support a similar ban in their own countries. In contrast, most Americans would oppose such a measure; 65% say they would disapprove of a ban on Muslim women wearing full veils in public places compared with 28% who say they would approve.   »»» religionnewsblog.com

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Now, the town that residents describe as a “progressive and multicultural” suburb once again has forged a new path, selecting a practicing Muslim as mayor — and a devout Orthodox Jew to be his deputy.

“No where else is this possible,” said Mohammed Hameeduddin, Teaneck’s first Muslim mayor and one of only a handful of Muslims to lead cities across the country. “The opportunity to bring two communities together and break down stereotypes that have belittled our nation is both monumental and humbling.”

Teaneck’s non-partisan Township Council last week voted to appoint Hameeduddin and Adam Gussen, both current council members, to their respective posts, which they will hold for two years.    »»» ABC News

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That could mean hundreds of children are being withdrawn from lessons, the council said, because passages from a collection of the Prophet Muhammed’s teachings ban instruments.    »»» Metro.co.uk

The permissibility of music in Islam is a very controversial issue. However, as this article suggests, only a small minority forbid all instrumental music. They allow decent songs, which may be accompanied with drums. The larger consensus is expressed by Sheikh Qaradawi in The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam: “Among the entertainments which may comfort the soul, please the heart, and refresh the ear is singing. Islam permits singing under the condition that it not be in any way obscene or harmful to Islamic morals. There is no harm in its being accompanied by [instrumental] music which is not exciting [i.e., lascivious].”

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The Parliamentary Assembly of Europe’s human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, passed a resolution warning that if governments imposed such a ban they would be denying women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” their right to cover their faces.

But while the Assembly opposed a general ban, it left the door open for targeted laws against the burka, pointing out that legal restrictions may be justified “for security purposes, or where the public or professional functions of individuals require their religious neutrality, or that their face can be seen”.   »»» The Press Association

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