A new ban on foreign-appointed imams in France is aimed at combating Islamist separatism, but the policy risks making matters worse by handing future decisions about hiring imams over to local groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The French move is an example of a political decision that sounds superficially positive. Unfortunately, it fails to address the complex, often unofficial processes by which Islamist ideology is currently disseminated. As such, it offers an object lesson in what not to do, worthy of close observation.

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A German government plan to ease citizenship requirements for millions of Turkish immigrants, German lawmakers are warning, could lead to the creation of Germany's first national Islamist party. Such a party, they say, would be controlled by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and allow him to extend his already considerable influence in Germany into the Bundestag, the federal parliament.

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Islamists in Europe have overwhelmingly come out in support of Hamas's October 7 massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis. That support has been expressed in different ways: explicitly approving of Hamas's murder, rape and abduction of Israeli civilians; justifying the crimes by blaming Israel; and by remaining silent and refusing to condemn Hamas publicly.

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France's highest administrative court, the Council of State (Conseil d'État), has rejected two legal challenges aimed at overturning a ban on abayas — full-length robes worn by some Muslim women and girls — in public schools.

The court's upholding of the abaya ban represents a setback, albeit a temporary one, for Islamist groups that have been encouraging Muslims to don Islamic clothing in public spaces to test the limits of France's principle of state secularism, known as laïcité.

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A new report about "anti-Muslim hostility" commissioned by the German government has faced a barrage of criticism after it was revealed that Islamist groups linked to Iran and Turkey were involved in producing the document. Unsurprisingly, the long-awaited report paints a highly distorted picture of Muslim discrimination in Germany: It brands virtually all criticism of Islam or Islamism as "anti-Muslim hostility" and reprimands German lawmakers and even reformist Muslims who oppose the spread of Islamism in Germany.

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