Culture Muslim world Travel USA

Happy New Year 2025!

The suspected Islamist terrorist attack in New Orleans overshadows the start of the new year.

Will people in the USA, as in Germany, soon think twice about going to outdoor festivities and entertainment districts? Let’s defy the terrorists with joie de vivre! In Woods Bay, Montana, people do this on New Year’s Day with the “Polar Bear Plunge” into the ice-cold water of Flathead Lake.

Muslim world Politics Women

How long will women be allowed to breathe?

Afghanistan: women’s rights continue to be restricted.

The systematic eradication of women from public life continues with a new Taliban decree. Nevertheless, the USA and Germany, for example, continue to finance humanitarian aid projects. What do Afghan women’s rights activists say about this? More here.

From X ©unknown
Comment Muslim world Politics

One more domino in the Middle East

Syria: Once again, a secular state falls into the hands of radical Muslims.

Shisha Cafe in Cairo  ©Rebecca Hillauer

No sooner has Donald Trump won the presidential election in the USA than Bashar al-Assad is overthrown by Islamist “rebels” in Syria – after thirteen years of civil war. Who believes in a coincidence of timing? A solo effort by the militias? My thoughts on this and some personal memories. More here.

Comment Muslim world Politics

Minute’s silence for Saudi dissidents

The attack in Magdeburg sheds light on situation in Saudi Arabia.

A man from Saudi Arabia carries out a terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Germany. I notice a post on his “X” account about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. In my opinion, this aspect is part of the reporting on the attack. More here.

Imprisoned for online posts ©Call for her release
Muslim world Women World

Commemorating a stoning in Europe

Twenty years ago, Ghofrane Haddaoui was cruelly murdered in Marseille.

Stoning to death: an archaic punishment only in Iran and Afghanistan? It is the year 2004: a 23-year-old woman is beaten and pelted with stones in the middle of Europe, in France, so that she dies in agony. How could this happen? More here.

Book cover ©Publisher
Culture Muslim world Politics World

Muslim slave trade in pre-colonial Africa

August 23: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Even before Europe’s colonial rulers divided up Africa, Africans hunted Africans and sold them to Muslim slave traders who exported them to the Arabian Peninsula or further. While the Europeans ruthlessly exploited their colonies, they also abolished human trafficking within Africa. More here.

Muslim world Politics Women

Stop the stoning of Madina!

The Taliban have been ruling Afghanistan again for three years now.

Stoning in Afghanistan ©Unknown

After the end of the NATO mission and the head-over-heels withdrawal of the USA, the Taliban declared themselves the new government of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021. Since then, women have lost all their rights. One woman is even to be stoned to death for extramarital sex. More here.

Muslim world Politics USA

“Take this hijab and shove it”

TV host Bill Maher slams hypocrisy in “gender apartheid” speech.

Bill Maher, Real Time, May 31, 2024

“Kids, if you want to change the orld and not just tie up Monday morning traffic, this is the apartheid that desperately needs your attention: the #GenderApartheid.” More here.

Culture Guest post Muslim world World

Terror against Christians in Nigeria

Guest post by Volker Seitz on the “World Persecution Index” 2024

Altar in Nigeria ©Rebecca Hillauer

Christians are persecuted for their faith in many countries. Every year, the “World Persecution Index” lists the 50 countries in which Christians are most at risk. The Index also describes what persecution and discrimination actually look like and how they affect people. Nigeria is once again in the top places. More here.

Muslim world Politics

Machos or pitiable weaklings?

What goes wrong in the traditional education of Muslim boys.

After the riots in New Year’s Eve 2022/23, the leader of the German Christian-Democratic Party, Friedrich Merz, called Muslim young men “little pashas”. He had to take a lot of flak for this. The recent hate-filled anti-Israel demonstrations show just how harmless Merz’s term was. I found a different comparison in a radio feature from 2007… The text makes the political failures of the last fifteen years clear once again.

Machos_muslimische-Männer_Muslime_Migranten_Rebecca-Hillauer
Grilled poultry sausage ©Rebecca Hillauer