Farid Hafez

Currently, the unprecedented protests instigated by the so called “yellow vests” (gilets jaunes) have given Islamophobic conspirators another chance for an irrational assertion.Read full op-ed here

Die Initiative Säkularer Muslime eint Islamfeindlichkeit und Kulturmuslime. Zur Analyse geht es hier

‘Seküler İslam İnisiyatifi‘ bildirisindeki iddialar, inisiyatifin birçok Müslüman kuruluşun savlarını desteklemekle pek alakasının olmadığını, Alman toplumunun argümanlarını desteklediğini düşündürüyor.

The notion of secularism laid out in this document represents a totalitarian version of secularism; it is not a soft secularism that protects religion, but a hard secularism that seeks to banish religious expression from the public sphere. Read full analysis here

Wie säkular ist die Initiative „islamkritischer“ Muslime tatsächlich. Mein Kommentar in der TAZ

The current Austrian government has been in place for nearly one year now, and it has made good on most of the claims it had presented in the coalition’s program for government. In a super rapid way, the coalition, which was formed by the Christian-democratic conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the radical right Freedom […]

With his hijab ban, Sebastian Kurz is adopting the far right’s anti-Muslim agenda, just with a liberal façade. Will he get the cover he seeks from the Jewish community? Will Israel whitewash the foundational anti-Semitism of his coalition partners? Read full op-ed here

Recently, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against a woman who claimed calling the Prophet Muhammad a pedophile was protected by free speech. The woman behind the appeal was fined €480 ($625) or an alternative sentence of 60 days in prison and was required to pay the costs of the trial before […]