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Germany: loner terrorists are greatest threat Via the Associated Press : Germany's top security official said Friday the greatest terror threat to the country no longer stems from big networks like al-Qaida but from small, independent terrorist cells or "lone wolf" perpetrators. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told The Associated Press that terrorist activities by Muslim extremist organizations have evolved to be decentralized, making their activities harder to track for authorities. "What worries us" is that there will likely also be more lone wolf attackers who are not directly connected to a major terror group but have radicalized themselves, often through propaganda available online, he said. "There will likely be more of them because the Islamists' propaganda networks seem to be further gearing up." ( source )

UK: 'Wrong perception of Islam big challenge for Muslims� Via the Daily Times : The core challenge that Muslim community is facing at the United Kingdom was the wrong perception of the Islam prevalent among British and other communities,� said United Kingdom Islamic Mission (UKIM) chief Dr Zahid Pervez. Dr Pervez, who was recently on a visit to Pakistan, said this while exclusively talking to Daily Times, at a local hotel. He said, �To combat the issue, we availed all chances to interact other communities on various dialogue forums so as to convince them that the Islam is a religion of peace and harmony, and we got very positive impacts of measures in that direction. He said that Muslim community was playing a vital role in the UK. They were contributing in business, services sector and even armed and law enforcement agencies.   ( source )

Kenya: Belgian, German seized over suspected terror links Via the Daily Nation : Police in Lamu have arrested two foreigners suspected to be members of the Al-Shabaab terror group. Lamu East police boss Samuel Obara on Wednesday said the Tunisian born men were Belgian and German citizens. ( source )

France: Islam in election debate Hollande: No special treatment for Muslims Mr Hollande, meanwhile, took a similar position to Mr Sarkozy when it came to special treatment for France's large Muslim community. He said he would not allow separate menus in public cafeterias or separate hours in swimming pools for men and women to satisfy Muslims' demands, and also said he would firmly support France's ban on the face-covering Islamic veils. ( source ) Sarkozy: There must be an Islam "of" France and not an Islam "in" France Sarkozy's first mention of Islam comes during a row over the left's plans to give the right to vote to non-European foreigners in municipal elections Why do you think that non-Europeans are Muslims? Why do you say that? Why do you say people who aren't European are Muslim? asks Hollande. Sarkozy says the right to vote for foreigners, doesn't mean Canadians, or Norwegians, but North Africans, sub-Saharan Africans, Algerians...

From now on, my "In Other News" posts will be posted on my blog.  The main advantage: you can now comment on these news items as well. There are still a few problems to work out.  I'll continue tinkering with it, and will be glad for any comments or suggestions. Updated: I managed to separate the two feeds: one for the regular blog posts and one for the "in other news" posts .   However, I don't see a way to do this for the GoogleGroups email subscribers. 

London: Muslim voters in fraud row 'forgot how they signed registration forms' Via the Evening Standard : A senior official at Tower Hamlets has rejected allegations of postal vote fraud � claiming Muslim voters simply forgot how they signed registration forms. Isabella Freeman, borough legal chief, spoke in a bid to explain a spike in rejected ballots following a by-election. The Met has launched an investigation into claims of voter fraud. Today the �120,000-a-year monitoring officer was accused of failing to �face up to reality� and accept voter fraud is on her doorstep � ahead of tomorrow�s London-wide elections for the next Mayor and the 25-seat London Assembly. Asked about an increase in rejected postal votes from 10 per cent to 14 per cent, Ms Freeman said this was because �voters have forgotten how they signed the registered application in the first place ... this is not unusual in relation to Muslim voters.� The council would not comment on whether she was referring to...

Norway: Anti-racists criticise musician Via the Foreigner : Norwegian NGOs are censuring singer-songwriter Hans Rotmo for being immigrant and Muslim-hostile following release of his new composition. Mr Rotmo�s song, �Vi fra andre�, is allegedly a pastiche on a poem by Norwegian writer Henrik Wergeland (1808-1845) from 1841 called �Vi ere en Nation, vi med�, which advocates 17th May � Norway�s National Day � should also be for children. However, the connections with Wergeland�s work become more clouded in the singer-songwriter�s version. Norwegian Centre Against Racism director Kari Helene Partapuoli thinks the text is mostly in �extremely bad taste� and �malicious at times.� �The entire text is based on quite a few simplistic prejudices against immigrants and Muslims in Norway,� she tells Adresseavisen, �it is a cheerful mixture of misguided xenophobia and incorrect assumptions about the Muslim revolution.� ( source )

Netherlands: Dutch to ditch burqa ban Via RNW : Interior Minister Liesbeth Spies says the burqa ban she helped prepare can be scrapped along with a proposed ban on holding dual citizenship. Now that the cabinet�s fallen, she "wouldn�t shed a tear" if parliament were to scrap the controversial Freedom Party-sponsored bill. "Now that the cabinet�s fallen, there�s no longer any payoff," she told national daily de Volkskrant on Wednesday. ( source )

Scotland: Forced marriage campaign targets mosques Via the BBC : A Muslim scholar has launched a groundbreaking campaign against forced marriage in Scotland. Shaykh Amer Jamil says the practice has no place in Islam. During the next few weeks leaflets and sermons are being given in mosques as part of an initiative to educate the community. "In the Muslim community there's a misconception amongst some people that religion allows this, that parents have an Islamic right to choose partner of their children, and that they don't have a choice in this," says the Glasgow-based Imam. ( source )

Macedonia: radical Islamists for lake murders Via EurActiv : Police in Macedonia arrested 20 people yesterday (1 May), including radical Islamists who reportedly fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, for the murder of five men at a lake near the capital Skopje in mid-April. On 13 April five slain Macedonian fishermen were discovered beside a lake at the village of Smiljkovci north of Skopje. Four of the victims were in their late teens or early 20s. The fifth was a man in his 40s. Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska said 20 people had been arrested in raids involving 800 police officers at more than 20 locations around the capital. Some would be charged with terrorism, and that the motive behind the attack had been "to spread fear", Jankulovska said. Most of those arrested were Macedonian citizens, she added. ( source )

Germany:Police arrest 30 Salafists after clashes Police spokeswoman Anja Meis said a group of Salafists protesting against a far-right march threw stones and attacked officers separating the two rallies in the western German city of Solingen Tuesday. Three policemen and a passer-by were injured. ( source )

Serbia: One dead in Pakistani-Afghan clash Via B92 : A man was murdered in the early hours of Tuesday near Subotica in a fight that broke out between two groups of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan. (...) According to the newspaper's source with the Serbian police (MUP), both groups were hiding on a farm near the northern Serbian town when the Pakistanis attacked the Afghans. After this, the Afghans reportedly decided to retaliate, with the incident resulting in the murder. ( source )

Chechnya: Women in mortal fear as president backs Islamic honor killings Via The Washington Times (h/t Jihad Watch ): Chechnya's government is openly approving of families that kill female relatives who violate their sense of honor, as this Russian republic embraces a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam after decades of religious suppression under Soviet rule. In the past five years, the bodies of dozens of young Chechen women have been found dumped in woods, abandoned in alleys and left along roads in the capital, Grozny, and neighboring villages. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov publicly announced that the dead women had �loose morals� and were rightfully shot by male relatives. He went on to describe women as the property of their husbands, and said their main role is to bear children. �If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them should be killed,� said Mr. Kadyrov, who often has stated his goal of making Chechnya �more Islamic than the Islamists.�...

Flanders: Muslims upset at Danni Lowinski episode Via HBvL (h/t RR): A recent episode of the Danni Lowinski series upset Muslims in Flanders.  In the episode, a Turkish girl wanted help as she was being forced to marry her cousin.  One of the characters, bicycle dealer Fuat, said: 'The Koran says that singles MUST marry.' Columnist Bahattin Kocak: "It's not in the Koran!  This is fiction, but I think it's a pity that something like that is proclaimed as truth.  This way a million viewers, of whom just a minority know the Koran, get a negative opinion about its content." VTM apologized if they didn't always show 'a nuanced image of the Turkish community'.  The broadcaster stressed that Danni Lowinski is a fictional show which exaggerates issues, people and problems.

Spain scraps health benefits for illegal immigrants Via AFP : Spain takes pride in its universal health care but Europe's debt crisis has spurred tough budget cuts that will bring sometimes life-saving treatment for illegal immigrants to an abrupt end. (...) Among illegal immigrants, only children, pregnant women and emergency cases will qualify for free treatment. "This will only put Spain on a par with other European Union countries," according to Health Minister Ana Mato. The measure will leave half a million illegal immigrants who have been counting on Spain's health coverage with no safety net, and several organisations have been sounding alarm bells. ( source )

UK: Cardiff Councillor in racism blast at Border Agency Via Wales Online (h/t Euro-Islam.info ): A Cardiff councillor has levelled an astonishing broadside at the UK Border Agency by accusing the authority of �indirect racism�. Riverside councillor Mohammed Islam claims officers have targeted businesses in his ward following an incident last year where another councillor passed a constituent�s tip-off to officials. Coun Islam, who has represented the ward since June 2004, claims UKBA is �basically going to every single Asian and ethnic minority business� in the area to check whether staff are legally entitled to work. ( source )

Germany: Al-Qaeda plans buried in porn Via CNN : On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards. Buried inside them was a pornographic video called "Kick Ass" -- and a file marked "Sexy Tanja." Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence -- more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations. Future plots include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants ...

Greece : Rise of far right worries mainstream Via AP : Firmly on the fringe of the right since it first appeared 20 years ago, Golden Dawn garnered a meager 0.23 percent in the 2009 elections. Now, it looks set to easily win more than the 3 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament, with recent opinion polls showing support at about 5 percent. The party has a barely veiled sinister side, and has been blamed for vicious attacks on immigrants. Members skirt questions about violence, saying they have no knowledge of such incidents. "We don't do anything, we protect the Greeks," said Epaminondas Anyfantis, a mild-mannered, 59-year-old candidate who looks the antithesis of many of the young, muscled and shaven-headed members. "Now, if in protecting the Greeks, a foreigner might get a slap or a kick or something, I think that's in the framework of the protection of the Greeks. ... Because unfortunately the Greeks at the moment have come to the point of asking Golden...

France: Graves of Muslim soldiers desecrated Via AP : The graves of several Muslim soldiers in a cemetery in southeastern France were desecrated over the weekend, officials said Monday. The French president called the act "a slur" on the country's history. ( source )

Germany: Party plans Mohammed cartoons campaign ('Freedom, not Islam') Via the Local : A far-right party on the campaign trial in Germany's most populous state is threatening to put caricatures of Mohammed outside mosques in a string of cities, prompting fears of violence. The "Pro NRW" party in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia has already shown anti-Islamic caricatures in Essen and Gelsenkirchen, though the police prevented demonstrations taking place directly outside mosques. (...) Interior Minister in state Ralf J�ger condemned the campaign and expressed support for planned counter-demonstrations. "Pro NRW is committing spiritual arson," he told the paper. "The party is consciously taking into account that Muslims will feel provoked and upset. The authorities will exhaust all legal avenues to prevent a xenophobic hate campaign." ( source )