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The German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has suggested that the German EU presidency, together with the European Commission, should train its Imams to improve the integration of the continent’s Muslim population, calm tensions and fight “home-grown terrorism”.

“Part of the Islamic world has yet to implement the Enlightenment,” said Mr Schaeuble, referring to a European movement that in the 1600-1700s valued freedom and reason rather than tradition.

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Days after TheSpoof.com satirically speculated that footballer David Beckham might be joining the Church of Scientology — adding that wife Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham “wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole” — it has been non-satirically suggested that the reverse is in fact the case.

Following David Beckham’s expensive signing to soccer team LA Galaxy, questionable British newspaper the Daily Express mulls over the friendship that the Beckhams share with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (who are both infamously members of the Church). The article drudges over rumours that Victoria Beckham “spent time getting to know” David Miscavige (Cruise’s best man and the head of the Church) at the Cruise-Holmes wedding. Victoria Beckham is also quoted as saying: “I’ve spoken to Tom about Scientology. I’m quite inquisitive but I don’t know anything about it. They do what they do and they’re cool.”

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Germans are being warned about the dangers of Scientology amid growing concerns over the number of after-school tutoring clubs promoting the movement. The German government has also told internal security forces to increase their scrutiny of the organisation - which is officially labelled a cult - claiming that Scientologists are seeking to take advantage of problems in the German education system to recruit children.

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September 19, Robert Redecker, French philosopher and philosophy teacher in a high school near Toulouse, received emailed death threats on the same day his article about Islam was published in Le Figaro, a leading, Conservative French daily newspaper. He has since been put under protection by the police, forcing him to stop giving lectures. The French minister of education self-consciously declares to sympathize with the philosopher.

“Merciless warrior, pillager, murderer of Jews and polygamist that is how Mohammad portrays himself in the Koran … Hatred and violence live in the book by which every Muslim is educated, the Koran,” Redeker wrote in his post, entitled “Confronted to Islamist intimidation, what can the free world do ?”. He draws a parallel with the cold war, stating Islam, as communism was, is an alternative to the occident.

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Having been suspended by its own opera house on Monday, on the advice of German security services, the Deutsche Oper production of Mozart’s Idomoneo was last night touted to be staged “as soon as possible”, following a series of high profile criticisms of the “self-censorship”, as well as the consent of a new German-Islam dialogue forum.

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