DUTCH POLICE ENCOURAGED TO READ THE KORAN

From the dailytelegraph: "Police in Amsterdam will get half the purchase price back if they buy the Koran to deepen their knowledge of Islam, a spokesman said today.
"A new translation had just appeared in Dutch and officers on the beat were being encouraged to read this and a biography of the Prophet Mohammed, Ebe van der Land said.
"These two books will make for a better understanding and knowledge of the Koran and the life of the prophet," Mr van der Land said.
"Police bosses have decided that staff who buy these books will be refunded half the price."
THE ASSAULT ON TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE--BY MUSLIMS IN EUROPE

Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Polygamous marriages are illegal in Italy yet are reportedly on the rise. While few Muslim immigrants or Italian converts to Islam admit such unions, Muslim scholars put the number nationwide at 15,000-20,000, La Repubblica daily reports.
"There is no doubt that the phenomenon exists, and that the number of polygamous unions growing as the number of Muslim immigrants to Italy increases," the paper said, adding that there are also cases of polygamous Italian converts to Islam.
No official statistics have been gathered on polygamous marriages in Italy, and estimates vary wildly from hundreds to tens of thousands, according to the paper.
The Catholic charity Caritas estimates there are just over 1.2 million Muslim immigrants in Italy, approximately one-third of a total of over 3.6 million immigrants.
The Italian state does not issue family welfare cheques to more than one wife per husband, unlike in Britain, where Read More...
AUSTRIAN BISHOP CONDEMNS MINARETS AS A PROVOCATION AND OXFORD EXPERIENCES THE MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER

From Earthtimes: Vienna - "A high-ranking representative of Austria's Catholic Church for the first time openly voiced reservations against the construction of minarets. "Mosques with minarets would be a provocation," Elmar Fischer, bishop of Austria's westernmost diocese in Vorarlberg, said on Tuesday in a press release.
"While Austria's population had been accepting Read More...