Life in a Parallel Society: In Germany, Islam is often equated with fundamentalism and fanaticism, a perception that imposes a heavy burden on the country’s 3 million Muslims. Their relationship to Western society is divided between integration and sometimes self-imposed exclusion. [Spiegel]
Intolerance in Indonesia: In the global debate about the compatibility between Islam and democracy, Indonesia is often held up as an example of the possible. Ten years after General Suharto’s downfall, the world’s most populous Muslim country has institutionalized free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, nurtured a lively press, and rolled back a panoply of racist laws that once targeted the country’s ethnic Chinese minority. But the ongoing persecution of the Ahmadiyya, a small Muslim sect founded in late 19th century India, underscores Indonesia’s – and the Muslim world’s – trouble guaranteeing a bedrock democratic value: freedom of conscience. Without it, the country’s proud claim to be the world’s third-largest democracy will remain lacking. [WSJ]
Boy called Islam ‘banned from game show over name’: The parents of a nine-year old French boy called Islam are to sue a television company for discrimination after it allegedly refused to let him participate in a game show unless he changed his name. [Telegraph]
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