A football anthem and a court room killing-Is Germany turning into a fortress of Islamaphobia? An anthem sung by fans of the German football club FC Schalke 04 has drawn protests from Muslims because of its reference to the Messenger (saw) of Allah. The club has received hundreds of e-mails from angry Muslims recently, since Turkish media carried reports about the song. Police in Gelsenkirchen , in the industrial Ruhr…

US State to outlaw hijab at the workplace According to the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act the wearing of head scarf by Muslim women is to be outlawed. The Act states:"No teacher in any public school shall wear any religious dress while engaged in the performance of duties as a teacher." The bill also says education officials and schools would not be breaking the law if they "prohibit a teacher…

UN call to reform IMF and WB will fall on deaf ears "The world institutions created generations ago must be made more accountable, more representative and more effective," UN Secretary General Ban said at the opening of a three-day meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on the global financial crisis and its impact on the developing world. "I regret that financial institutional reform has divided (U.N.) member states," he said.…

Anti-Islamic parties do well in European elections The Dutch politician Geert Wilders' Freedom Party won 17 percent of the vote European Union parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. Wilders, who has compared the Koran to Mein Kampf, campaigned on an anti-EU and anti-immigrant platform. The Freedom Party finished second to the governing Christian Democratic Alliance, which garnered 19.9% of the vote. Naftaniel, a Dutch Jew whose organization monitors anti-Semitism and racism,…