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Canada:

MMW’s own Shireen Ahmed was on the CBC radio show The Current talking about what this week’s Canadian election results mean.

One take away in Colorlines from the obsession with the niqab in the Canadian election is the #doimatternow campaign, which highlights the relative silence of the major candidates on the issues affecting a majority of Native women (including over a thousand missing and murdered indigenous women since 1980) at the expensive of the extremely small minority of Canadian women in niqab.

Switzerland:

In other election news, the right wing Swiss People’s party swept Switzerland’s parliamentary elections last weekend. Given that this party has been behind the cantonal-level headscarf and niqab bans or planned bans in Ticino, St. Gallen and Valais, expect headscarves to continue being a pressing issue in Swiss politics.

The Swiss People’s party is known for their “classy” (/s) campaign posters, and several anti-Islam posters this election season made waves. (article in French).

France:

Slate’s “Double X” section has an article (in French) asking if Islamophobic acts hide a misogynist agenda given that 80% of attacks committed against Muslims are committed against Muslim women, according to the CCIF (Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France).

Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Front, went to court this week for charges of hate speech stemming from statements made in 2010 (another article in French here).

USA:

An article about being un-mosqued is in The Atlantic and mentions the Make Space initiative in Northern Virginia.

 

In Bloomington, India, a Muslim woman was attacked and strangled by a student at IU Bloomington. Wait, I thought Islamophobia wasn’t a thing any more? /s The Christian Science Monitor asks, “Is an Apology Enough?” because indeed the perpetrator, 19- year old Triceten Bickford, has said he is sowwy.

 

Germany:

A group of neo-Nazis in Germany planned a bomb attack on asylum shelters in Bamberg, in Baveria and were apprehended by police on Thursday (in English here and in German here). One of those apprehended was a known member of the anti-Islam PEGIDA group.

Meanwhile in Düsseldorf, people are getting all riled up about niqab and school has banned mothers from wearing it.