The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the Australian authorities over the visa application by Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders.
It is unclear why the visa has not yet been granted. The anti-Islam politician applied for a visa three weeks ago in order to give a series of lectures next month. The employees who would accompany him have already received their visas and the group which invited Wilders to Australia has accused the government of stalling over his application.
A commissionaire who allegedly posted comments online suggesting the Masjid Al-Iman Mosque on Quadra Street be blasted with a rocket launcher appeared in Victoria provincial court on Wednesday.
Daniel Kevin Speed is charged with causing fear of injury or damage. His defence lawyer, Bill Heflin, said Speed was expected to plead not guilty at his next court appearance on Oct. 3.
A key organiser of an Islamic rally to be held in Melbourne on Sunday has cancelled the protest amid fears of a backlash and police concerns it will be overrun by violent activists.
Swaybah Javed, who had helped invite supporters through social networking to a rally outside the city’s State Library, said she’d been forced to scrap the event.
“I am calling off the protest as I do not want more violence on the streets, as Islam does not promote violence,” the university graduate said today. “It is a shameful day for Australia when Islamophobia has boiled over to the point where it is impossible to carry out a peaceful protest.”
A French Muslim teenager who was arrested for wearing a full Islamic veil has been sent to prison for two months after being convicted of biting a policewoman.
Louise-Marie Suisse, 18, was stopped by two police officers near a mosque in the centre of Marseille in late July. She was wearing a full-face veil, in breach of a ban introduced last year, and refused to cooperate with the police when asked to produce identity papers, her trial was told.
Muslim civil rights groups and community organisations have condemned a series of anti-Islamic advertisements that will be appearing in New York’s subway stations next week.
The ads had initially been rejected by the city’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) but were later allowed after a legal appeal ruled them to be expressions of freedom of speech. One ad reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”
Two Cincinnati-based companies are facing a lawsuit over the termination of a former Muslim worker. The lawsuit, filed in an North Carolina court Monday, claims a woman named Safa Elhassan was fired from Procter & Gamble facilities after facing discrimination in the workplace.
Elhassan worked for P&G through XLC Services, a Cincinnati-based company that provides manufacturing services and warehouse management to other companies, at P&G facilities in Guilford County, N.C.
The lawsuit charges P&G and XLC with religious harassment, religious discrimination, failing to accommodate after religious discrimination in the workplace, national origin discrimination, sexual discrimination, two counts of retaliation, negligence, unfair and deceptive trade practices, assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Up to 2,000 people rallied in a Moscow neighborhood after local authorities announced the building of a Muslim cultural center and mosque in the area. The protest ended with officials being forced to cancel the planned construction.
The impromptu demonstration on Wednesday evening was gathered through social networks. Residents of the Mitino district came to voice their fears over the plans to build a Muslim cultural center and mosque in the neighborhood, which would be able to accommodate up to 60,000 believers during a service.
The would-be Muslim prayer house is subject to much speculation, even though construction project is far from being finalized. The rumor mill describes it as “a 13-story mega mosque,” which would broadcast calls to a morning prayer all over the neighborhood.
Sam Harris presents his characteristically nuanced thoughts on The Innocence of Muslims and what he terms “the latest wave of Muslim hysteria and violence”. He writes:
“Consider what is actually happening: Some percentage of the world’s Muslims – Five percent? Fifteen? Fifty? It’s not yet clear – is demanding that all non-Muslims conform to the strictures of Islamic law.”
Police are investigating racist comments made over the internet in response to plans for a Muslim place of worship in Hereford. Comments were made via social networking sites after plans for a community centre for Muslims were revealed.
One comment posted on the Hereford Masjid Fundraising Campaign’s Facebook page, which has since shut down, threatened to contaminate any land identified as a potential site and referred to the group as vermin.
The Senate has rejected a Greens motion calling on parliament to condemn the “hateful anti-Muslim views” of controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who is seeking an Australian visa for a speaking tour.
Greens senator Richard Di Natale [pictured] said on Thursday it was “critically important” his motion be supported, particularly after last week’s protests in Sydney by members of the Muslim community angry about a US film on Islam.