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ISLAM

Muslims forming charity system for kindergartens and care homes

Muslims in Germany want to form their own charity to support retirement homes and kindergartens nationwide, leader of the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD) said Friday.

Muslims forming charity system for kindergartens and care homes
Photo: DPA

Such a system is desperately needed by Muslims and would have the same rights and duties as Christian charities, Aiman Mazyek told daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

In some parts of Germany it is almost impossible to find a non-church affiliated kindergarten, he explained, adding that they are allowed to reject potential employees from other religions.

“That is legal and I understand it,” he told the paper.

But it is also fairly common to find Christian kindergartens with enrolment of up to 90 percent Muslim children and no Muslim employees, he said.

Thus it is time to open the way for alternatives, Mazyek added.

The proposed association of charities would be supported by Germany’s most important Muslim organisations, which already run most mosque communities around the country.

In addition to the ZMD, Germany’s Muslim council, or Islamrat, the DITIB Turkish association and others are all working on the project together, he said.

DAPD/ka

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RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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