Islam in Europe

Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam opposition leader, said on Oct. 28 that he refuses to attend his trial next week and that he sees it as politically motivated. 

Wilders is accused of discrimination and inciting racism in remarks made on live television in 2014 when he led a roomful of people chanting that they wanted fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute on Wednesday night to Bosnia's wartime president, Alija Izetbegovic, on the 13th anniversary of his death.

"Alija, as leader in the fight for Bosnian Muslims, enabled the survival of Europe's most important Islamic community," Erdogan tweeted. 

Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right politician who was acquitted five years ago of making anti-Islam remarks, went on trial again on March 18 for hate speech and discrimination against the Moroccan minority.

The day after the attacks in Paris, the leader of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, Husein Kavazovic, condemned the murders and expressed solidarity with the victims.

"The attackers do not represent our faith nor our community," Kavazovic said on Saturday.

Bosnian Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic has send a letter to the president of the UN Security Council supporting a draft British resolution on Srebrenica.

This has been reported by the Turkish agency Anatolia.

Turkey?s top cleric, Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) head Mehmet Görmez, has said he will return his 1 million Turkish Lira ($435,000) official car that was recently purchased, following strong criticism from opposition parties and the public. 

The newly-appointed Sarajevo Canton chief prosecutor said she has reopened an investigation into the murder of Hakija Turajlic, wartime Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

?I am Charlie Hebdo; because I, like many members of my generation, grew up reading and admiring satire, which, by definition, attacks sacred cows ? the powerful, the pious, the seemingly pure. Otherwise it is not satire,? a very dear friend of mine wrote on her Facebook account.

The Turkish prime minister says Turkey?s EU membership would ease the inter-cultural tensions currently threatening Europe, adding he expects the same reaction shown for the Paris terrorist attacks to be shown against Islamophobic attacks.

Dutch far-right populist lawmaker Geert Wilders is be tried for inciting racial hatred after pledging in March to ensure there were "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands, prosecutors said Dec. 18.