The number of Britons choosing to become Muslims has nearly doubled in the past decade, with one of the most comprehensive attempts to estimate how many people have embraced Islam, according to the Independent. While previous estimates placed the number of Muslim converts between 14,000 and 25,000, an inter-faith think tank estimates the real figures could be as high as 100,000 with nearly 5,000 converts each year nationally.
A poll by Faith Matters, surveyed converts living in Britain and broke down what proportion of Muslim converts there were living in London. The researchers polled mosques with results showing 1,400 conversions in the capital and when extrapolated this meant approximately 5,200 people converting to Islam each year – figures that were comparable with French and German survey research results.
ANTI-ISLAM POLITICIAN WILDERS FACES PROSECUTION FOR RACIST COMMENTS
Anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders will be prosecuted in the Netherlands for discrimination and inciting hatred against Moroccans during election campaigning in March, prosecutors said on 18 December. The charges stem from an incident in The Hague, when Wilders led an anti-Moroccan chant in a cafe, which was broadcast nationally and prompted 6,400 complaints to the police.
Wilders asked supporters if they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in their city, triggering the chant: “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!.” Wilders responded: “We’ll take care of that.” The prosecution statement said Wilders will face charges of “insulting a specific group based on race and inciting discrimination and hatred”. Politicians may go far in their comments under the right to free speech, prosecutors said, but “that freedom is limited by the prohibition of discrimination”.
UN DRAFT IMPOSES DEADLINE FOR ISRAELI OCCUPATION
Jordan has filed a draft UN Security Council resolution in favour of setting a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land by the end of 2017. The text was formally submitted to the council on Wednesday night following a lengthy Arab League meeting at the ambassadorial level at UN headquarters. The draft resolution seeks “a just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution that brings an end to the Israeli occupation since 1967.”
It fixes the end of 2017 as the deadline for Israeli security forces to fully withdraw from the occupied territories. The submission of a draft resolution means it could be put to a vote as soon as 24 hours later, but it does not guarantee it will come to a vote.
TEN BOSNIAN SERB OFFICIALS ARRESTED FOR WAR CRIMES
Ten Bosnian Serb wartime officials were arrested on 16 December over the killing of close to 70 Muslim Bosniak civilians and persecution of many more, including women and children, early in the former Yugoslav republic’s 1992-95 war. Two decades since the war, Bosnia is still hunting down those behind war crimes committed during a conflict that killed 100,000 people and displaced two million.
Raiding premises in three towns in eastern Bosnia, police arrested 10 former senior military and police officers on accusations of crimes against humanity, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) was reported to have said in a statement. The men are suspected of planning, supervising and conducting the persecution of around 120 Bosniaks from a village near the eastern town of Zvornik on July 14, 1992, the prosecutor’s office said.
ARAKAN MUSLIMS’ TWO YEARS OF DESPAIR IN MYANMAR CAMPS
Scrawny chickens and mangy dogs mingle with raggedly clothed children and exhausted adults on the dusty paths through Da Paing camp near the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a report said on 16 December. Nobody wears shoes. Nearby are a dozen simple longhouses arranged in rows where families live in cramped quarters, it added.
A salty breeze blowing in from the Bay of Bengal provides a brief respite from the blazing sun but there is little around that exudes anything but destitution. “Everything is not okay here,” Ba Sein, 52, a member of the managing committee for the camp, was reported as saying. Holding 7,000 inhabitants from the Arakan Muslim minority (Rohingya), Da Phaing is one of several squalid enclosures for Internally Displaced People outside Sittwe in northwestern Myanmar.
MUSLIM SCHOLARS CRITICISE EGYPT OVER ARREST WARRANT FOR QARADAWI
A group of Muslim scholars on 15 December criticised Egypt for seeking an Interpol arrest warrant for their leader, a Qatar-based cleric whose outspoken support for the Muslim Brotherhood angered Gulf Arab states that supported Egypt’s military coup. Interpol this month issued a Red Notice alert for Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi in connection with several alleged offences including murder, arson, vandalism and theft. It said it was acting at the behest of Egyptian authorities.
EGYPT TO TRY HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS IN MILITARY COURTS
An Egyptian prosecutor on 15 December referred to a military court at least 339 alleged supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, including four top leaders, as the state expands a crackdown against political opponents. Egypt expanded the jurisdiction of military courts in October to try civilians accused of acts ranging from attacking state facilities to blocking roads. That followed some of the worst assaults on security forces since last year’s overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood.
The practice is seen by critics as another clampdown on dissent by a government that has jailed thousands of Brothers and targeted other activists. It is a controversial issue in Egypt, where the armed forces play an influential role in both political and economic spheres.
TURKEY DENIES LINKS WITH ALLEGED ‘SPIES’ IN GERMANY
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, or TIKA, denied having any ties with three Turks who were recently detained and accused of spying in Germany. “TIKA does not have any offices in Germany at the moment,” said a statement by the TIKA presidency on 19 December. “The presidency did not go beyond its working scope in any of the countries where it operates.”
The statement also said allegations about spying activities are an act of “malicious intent against the Republic of Turkey.” “TIKA aims to provide peace and security in accordance with international agreements, OECD-DAC principles and the UN,” the statement added.
ONE MILLION WOUNDED AND DISEASE SPREADING IN SYRIA: WHO
One million people have been wounded during Syria’s civil war and diseases are spreading as regular supplies of medicine fail to reach patients, the World Health Organisation’s Syria representative said. A plunge in vaccination rates from 90 per cent before the war to 52 per cent this year and contaminated water have added to the woes, allowing typhoid and hepatitis to advance, Elizabeth Hoff was reported as saying.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which began in March 2011 with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad and spiralled into civil war after a crackdown by his security forces. “In Syria, they have a million people injured as a direct result of the war. You can see it in the country when you travel around. You see a lot of amputees,” said Hoff. “This is the biggest problem.”
EGYPT POLICE ARREST 102 BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS
Egyptian security forces have detained 102 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group in raids in five provinces, a report citing the Interior Ministry said on 19 December. The ministry said in a statement that the detainees were involved in “terrorist” attacks targeting policemen, judges and infrastructure.
According to the statement, the suspects had been detained in security swoops in Giza and the Nile Delta provinces of Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Beheira and Qalioubiya. Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif told The Anadolu Agency that the suspects had been detained over the past ten days.
Egypt has been dogged by turmoil since the military ousted elected President Mohamed Morsi last year following massive protests against his one-year rule. Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt’s military-backed government has waged a relentless crackdown on political dissent – largely targeting Morsi supporters – which has seen hundreds killed and thousands detained.