Reform UK Scotland’s deputy leader has said he finds the burka “extremely intimidating”.

Thomas Kerr said Muslim women should not be allowed to wear niqabs and burkas publicly in a “Christian nation”.

In a sit-down interview with the Press Association, at a pub in the east end of Glasgow, Mr Kerr also claimed the burka was a security risk.

Reform has brought two debates to Holyrood in recent weeks calling for all face-coverings to be banned, although their motion last week only mentioned the burka and niqab specifically by name.

About one in 100 of Scottish Muslim women are estimated to wear burkas or niqabs.

The calls have provoked a furious response from other parties, with First Minister John Swinney among those accusing the party of racism.

Mr Kerr rejected the label, arguing that 24 countries – including EU nations such as France and Denmark – already ban the burka, accusing his pro-EU opponents of hypocrisy.

Mr Kerr, seen as a potential future leadership successor to Malcolm Offord, said the burka had no place in modern Scotland.

He told PA: “I think it is intimidating for somebody to be happy to walk down the street and keep wearing full-face coverings and I don’t care if it’s a balaclava or a burka.

“I just find it extremely intimidating. I don’t think it’s right. I find it very, very wrong that in our society, in this day and age, that people can walk around and make sure that their faces aren’t seen. I think that’s wrong.”

Pressed on why he thought the burka should be banned, he said: “I think that we are in a Christian nation which is built on Christian values.

“I think that if you’re going to integrate in our society properly, then you should live by the rules that we have, and that means learning the language, that means speaking how we speak, that means integrating properly with our society.

“It’s not within our values, it’s not within our respectful rules to be having (people) walking around in face coverings.”

The MSP claimed that “when you are covering your entire face, it becomes a security risk because you never know who is behind that”.

Mr Kerr said he and his party was in favour of banning all face coverings in public, including balaclavas.

He insisted he was not targeting Muslim women, but instead highlighting “the hypocrisy in the political establishment.”

He said politicians were too quick to penalise young, working-class men who are angry about migration and hide their faces to avoid repercussions from employers or “Stand Up to Racism and other far-left thugs who will put them all over social media”.

Mr Kerr also defended his frequent use of terms including “strangers”, “invaders” and “fighting-age men” to describe migrants arriving in the UK.

“I use the language that people who speak to me here in the East End of Glasgow use,” he said. “I don’t know what else you would call hundreds of young men coming across the English Channel other than an invasion of our borders.”

Asked directly if his rhetoric was designed to make the issue sound scarier than it is, the Reform deputy leader replied: “There’s nothing scarier than hundreds of young, fighting-age men coming to your country who you don’t know.

“There’s nothing scarier than seeing the city that you love changing dramatically overnight. There’s nothing scarier than seeing Glasgow city centre becoming lawless, or seeing people being housed over your own kids.”

Mariam Ahmed, chief executive of Amina – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, said Mr Kerr’s views on the burka are misogynistic and racist.

She told PA: “Twice the Parliament have debated what a woman should wear and that should not be important.

“There’s already a steep rise in Islamophobia, hatred towards Muslim women who wear even just hijabs, and these policies that Thomas Kerr keeps bringing in are misogynistic and racist as well.

“He has consistently called (the burka) a medieval garment, which I think is quite rude and quite racist.

“This can be a piece of clothing that a woman wants to wear.

“Ultimately, we want women to have the choice to wear what they want, but as politicians, we need to be asking ourselves: seriously what are the real issues and the real debates that are impacting the people of Scotland? I would say this is not it.”

Ms Ahmed urged politicians at Holyrood to instead focus on issues such as housing, women’s safety, the economy and the cost of living.

Green MSP Kate Nevens said: “Nobody will seriously believe that Thomas Kerr is genuinely intimidated by women wearing burkas or niqabs.

“We can all see exactly what he’s doing, and there is nothing remotely original or subtle about it.

“He is reaching for the same tired, divisive and racist playbook that has been used by generations of politicians who have sought to exploit people’s fears, stoke prejudice and turn communities against one another.

“We saw it with Enoch Powell, we saw it with the BNP and UKIP and now we’re seeing it from Thomas Kerr and Reform.

“We saw it when they chose to bring this debate in the first place, and when they chose to fight an election based on dog whistles, stereotypes and branding any refugee or migrant who isn’t white as a stranger.”

Ms Nevens said Reform’s Holyrood debate on face coverings was “another desperate, cynical and deeply irresponsible attempt to manufacture division for political gain”.

She went on: “I don’t believe that we should be a country where politicians target minorities and try to tell women what to wear.

“The public deserves better than Kerr’s consistent and transparent attempts to scapegoat, smear marginalised groups and stoke Islamophobia, racism, misogyny and division.”

Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded access to its only store that sells alcohol, allowing wealthy foreign residents to buy such drinks in the latest step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom’s experiment in liberalisation.

There has been no official announcement of the decision, but word has got out, and long lines of cars and people can now be seen at the discreet, unmarked store in the Diplomatic Quarter of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The store opened in January 2024 for non-Muslim diplomats.

The new rules allow non-Muslim foreigners who hold Premium Residency to buy.

The residency permit goes to foreigners with specialised skills, investors and entrepreneurs.

Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has banned alcohol since the early 1950s.

The store is widely seen as a way to cautiously test the controlled sale of alcohol.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his father, King Salman, have pursued a dramatic liberalisation policy in the kingdom, aiming to attract tourism, boost international business and reduce economic dependence on crude oil.

The kingdom, which adheres to Islamic Sharia law, has opened cinemas, allowed women to drive and hosted major music festivals.

But political speech and dissent remain strictly criminalised, potentially at the penalty of death.

Alcohol remains banned for the general public.

The unmarked store resembles a duty-free shop.

Its ownership remains officially undisclosed.

Security is strict.

Every visitor is subject to eligibility checks and frisking before entry.

Phones and cameras are banned inside, and staff even inspect eyewear for smart glasses.

The Associated Press spoke to several customers leaving the store.

Prices are sharply elevated, they said.

Diplomats are exempt from taxes on their purchases, but Premium Residency holders are not.

The customers described the store as relatively well-stocked, though some said the selection of beer and wine was limited.

The Premium Residency permit was created as part of the kingdom’s drive to attract global expertise.

Unlike other residencies, it does not require a Saudi sponsor, and it offers benefits including the right to own property, start a business and sponsor family.

It requires high incomes or large investments to qualify.

Saudis and other residents who want a drink often travel to the neighbouring island of Bahrain, where alcohol is legally available to Muslims and non-Muslims.

On weekends and holidays, the island sees an influx of visitors from Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf, making it a popular getaway.

The more expensive option is to go to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Others resort to smuggled alcohol, which can be extremely expensive, or to bootleg booze – often homemade and risky, using unsafe materials.

Some people in Saudi Arabia enjoy alcohol-free beverages as a substitute for the real thing or to capture the aesthetic of drinking, often snapping photos for social media.

At major events and festivals, it is not uncommon to see long lines forming at alcohol-free beer stands, especially among young Saudis and visitors looking to partake in the vibe.

King Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch, banned the sale after a 1951 incident in which one of his sons, Prince Mishari, became intoxicated and used a shotgun to kill British vice consul Cyril Ousman in Jeddah.

Read more: Two million expected as Hajj season begins in Saudi Arabia.

About six weeks ago, a 32 year old doctor in the Sindh province in Pakistan was shot by police. Shah Nawaz was killed by police who suggested that he was resisting arrest after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The blasphemy charge was that he had shared ‘blasphemous’ content on social media.

Nawaz’s family reject this charge and say that he was giving himself up and that he was killed by a member of the local police force on the basis that he had allegedly promoted ‘blasphemous’ content.

This killing came on the heels of another murder on September the 12th 2024, where a 52 year old man  was killed in custody in Balochistan and who was being held on the basis of spurious ‘blasphemy’ charges.

Judiciary Involvement in Blasphemy

We must not forget that these killings and the charges of ‘blasphemy’ come on the back of a range of cases that have mainly involved the beleaguered Christian community in Pakistan, with the most high profile case being that of Asia Bibi.

Following on from Asia Bibi’s case, in May 2020, Aneeqa Ateeq a 26 year old Muslim woman was arrested in May 2020 and charged with circulating ‘blasphemous material’ on her Whatsapp messages. A court in Rawalpindi subsequently found Ateeq guilty and gave her a 20 year jail sentence and ordered her to be ‘hanged by her neck till she is dead”.

In 2021, a Pakistani Christian, Shagufta Kiran, was arrested for posting ‘blasphemous’ content on her Whatsapp messaging app in September 2020. The 40 year old mother of four was recently found guilty and has been sentenced to death.

The list of Christians and Muslims who have been accused of blasphemy continues to rise in Pakistan on the back of the introduction of ‘blasphemy’ as a political tool by the Islamist extremist group, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP). Such has been the spread of their narrative that the lives of minorities and those who even question faith, are at risk. The impacts of ‘blasphemy’ are therefore felt by Christian and Ahmadi communities who have borne the brunt of the actions of the state in denying them the most basic of rights.

Faith Matters will continue to highlight these human rights abuses and to highlight the lives of those affected by the ‘blasphemy police’ and extremists in Pakistan who seek to target minorities. Furthermore, the U.K. Government has not done enough in highlighting and challenging the human rights abuses around ‘blasphemy’ that are becoming pervasive in the country. The meekness of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on this matter, is unacceptable.

READ MORE: Two Christians Sought by Police in Pakistan on Blasphemy Charges

Iran is again taking tougher action against violations by women of strict Islamic dress codes, with the start on Saturday of a new drive on observance of the regulations in the Gulf state.

Controls were tightened nationwide and women disregarding the requirement to wear a headscarf in public remain guilty of a criminal offence, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported on Telegram, citing a police commander.

Since the mass protests led by women in the autumn of 2022, Iran’s notorious morality police have been less strict, partly because they experienced more resistance from the population.

Instead, security agencies stepped up video surveillance of offences. For example, cars belonging to women who were repeatedly caught driving without a headscarf were impounded.

Authorities also tracked offences online, including photos of women without headscarves posted on Instagram. Shops and restaurants whose customers disregarded the dress code were ordered to close.

Since 2022, more and more Iranian women have been ignoring the dress code, while religious hardliners have tried to fight the growing defiance.

A new bill passed by parliament provides for draconian punishments but has not yet come into force.

In the coming weeks, a revised version is to be resubmitted to Iran’s so-called Guardian Council, an arch-conservative, 12-member supervisory body.

The mass protests were triggered by the death of the young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by police because of an allegedly ill-fitting headscarf.

An expert United Nations commission concluded that physical violence after the arrest led to her death.

Clashes have erupted in an immigrant neighbourhood in Sweden’s third largest city after an anti-Muslim protester set fire to the Koran, police have said.

Police in Malmo said they were pelted with rocks and dozens of cars were set on fire, including in an underground garage, describing the events that started on Sunday and lasted overnight as “a riot”.

The clashes started after an anti-Islam activist Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Koran and an angry mob tried to stop him while police, some of them in riot gear, detained at least three people.

Early on Monday, an angry crowd of mainly young people also set fire to tyres and debris, and some were seen throwing electric scooters, bicycles and barriers in Malmo’s Rosengard neighbourhood, which has seen similar clashes in the past. There were several banners relating to the Koran burning.

Senior police officer Petra Stenkula said: “I understand that a public gathering like this arouses strong emotions, but we cannot tolerate disturbances and violent expressions like those we saw on Sunday afternoon.

“It is extremely regrettable to once again see violence and vandalism at Rosengard.”

Speaking at a news conference, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Regardless of the reason behind these riots, the car fires, the harassment, violence against police officers… regardless of the reason, I think that all Swedes find this completely unacceptable.”

In the past months, Mr Momika, a refugee from Iraq, has desecrated the Koran in a series of anti-Islam protests mostly in Stockholm that have caused anger in many Muslim countries. Swedish police have allowed his actions, citing freedom of speech.

The Koran burnings have sparked angry protests in Muslim countries, attacks on Swedish diplomatic missions and threats from Islamic extremists. Muslim leaders in Sweden have called on the government to find ways to stop the Koran burnings.

Sweden dropped its last blasphemy laws in the 1970s and the government has said it has no intention to reintroduce them.

However, the government has announced an inquiry into legal possibilities for enabling police to reject permits for demonstrations over national security concerns.

Read more: Koran burned again in Sweden as government considers ban

The German city of Cologne will start permitting mosques to broadcast muezzin calls for prayer, the city said.

The calls can be broadcast for five minutes every week for the Friday prayer around noon and audible outside the Muslim houses of prayer, city spokeswoman Katja Reuter said.

Cologne mosques need to apply for a special permit in order to be able to broadcast the call.

The initiative will be limited to two years and then be re-evaluated.

The city’s mayor welcomed the decision, saying that “if in addition to the sounds of the church bells we also hear the call of the muezzin, it shows that in Cologne diversity is valued and lived”.

“Permitting the call of the muezzin is a sign of respect,” Mayor Henriette Reker tweeted last week.

Christian church bells ring out daily in many German cities and towns.

Cologne, a western city of one million, has one of Germany’s biggest Muslim communities and about 35 mosques.

Most Muslims initially came from Turkey as guest workers 60 years ago and then later brought their families.

Only few other Muslim houses of prayer across Germany, like in the western towns of Oer-Erkenschwick and Dueren, have been broadcasting the muezzin’s call for years, sometimes despite the protests of Christian neighbours.

Palestinian worshippers clashed with Israeli police on Friday evening at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City as tensions soared again.

The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said 53 people, mainly Palestinians, were wounded in clashes with police there and elsewhere in Jerusalem, including 23 who were taken to hospital.

It says most were wounded in the face and eyes by rubber-coated bullets and shrapnel from stun grenades.

The clashes were the latest in a deadly day that saw Israeli forces shoot and kill two Palestinians after three men opened fire on an Israeli base in the occupied West Bank.

They erupted when Israeli police deployed heavily as Muslims were performing evening prayers at Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan.

Video footage from the scene shows worshippers throwing chairs, shoes and rocks toward the police and officers responding by opening fire.

Israeli police also closed gates leading to Al-Aqsa inside the walled Old City.

Dozens of Palestinians in an east Jerusalem neighbourhood are at risk of being evicted following a long legal battle with Israeli settlers, and Palestinian protesters have clashed with Israeli police in the city on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The unrest has drawn attention from across the region, with neighbouring Jordan warning Israel against further “provocative” steps, and Iran seizing on the sensitivities around Jerusalem and encouraging the violence.

In the attack on Friday morning, Israeli police said three attackers fired on the base near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

The Border Police and an Israeli soldier returned fire, killing two of the men and wounding the third, who was evacuated to a hospital.

Some 70,000 worshippers attended the final Friday prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa, the Islamic endowment that oversees the site said.

Thousands protested afterwards, waving the green flags of the Islamic militant group Hamas and chanting pro-Hamas slogans before dispersing peacefully.

Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for more violence in the coming days.

Credit: PA News

A new charity launched to recognise the sacrifices made by Muslims who fought in the British military in the past century is aiming to erect war memorials to commemorate their contributions.

The National Muslim War Memorial Trust (NMWMT) said it also wants to educate both students and adults about the role of Muslims in the Armed Forces, to dispel misconceptions and help create good relations between different people and communities.

The organisation’s chair, the Conservative peer Lord Sheikh, said the “heroic contribution” of Muslims in the British Armed Forces during both World Wars has been “undervalued”.

He said: “One of the key reasons we have set up the charity is to combat Islamophobia, and people should realise the sacrifices Muslims made to keep the Union Jack flying.”

He said those associated with the trust “very much hope to draw attention to and get more public recognition for the sacrifices made by Muslim personnel in the British Armed Forces”.

He added: “The War Graves Commission report illustrates how long overdue this is.”

An investigation published this week found the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) did not properly commemorate potentially hundreds of thousands of black and Asian service personnel who died fighting for the British Empire.

The NMWMT said the first memorial it will be involved in erecting will be at a location in London which is yet to be agreed.

So far, £29,000 of a £2 million target has been raised to erect a permanent memorial, the trust’s website shows.

According to the trust there were at least 400,000 Muslims fighting in the British Indian Army during the First World War, and this had grown to around one million by the time of the Second World War.

A total of 44 people have been arrested and 20 Israeli police officers were injured on a night of chaos in Jerusalem, as security forces clashed with Palestinians angry about Ramadan restrictions and Jewish extremists who held an anti-Arab march nearby.

Tensions have risen in recent days in Jerusalem, which has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Residents braced for possible further unrest ahead of Muslim Friday prayers as police stepped up security measures.

Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The tensions began when police placed barricades outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, where Muslims traditionally gather to enjoy the evening after the daytime fast.

Later on Thursday, hundreds of Palestinians hurled stones and bottles at police, who fired water cannon and stun grenades to disperse them.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured during the unrest.

Meanwhile, a far-right Jewish group known as Lahava led a march of hundreds of protesters chanting “Arabs get out” toward the Damascus Gate.

The show of force came in response to videos circulated on TikTok showing Palestinians slapping religious Jews at random. Other videos made in response to them appear to show Jews assaulting Arabs.

Police used metal barricades to halt the far-right protesters a few hundred yards from Damascus Gate.

Later, they used water cannon, stun grenades and mounted police to push them back toward mostly Jewish west Jerusalem.

Videos circulated online showed smaller clashes and fires elsewhere in the city.

One video showed what appeared to be a group of Palestinians beating an ultra-Orthodox Jew near Damascus Gate.

They could be seen punching, kicking and throwing the man to the ground before police chased them off.

The police statement did not specify whether those arrested were Palestinian or Jewish and did not refer to any specific instances of violence.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Its fate has been one of the most divisive issues in the peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago.

Thousands of Palestinians were expected to attend weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City later on Friday.

The site is the third holiest in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

The sprawling hilltop holy site has been the scene of clashes on a number of occasions over the years, and was the epicentre of the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

A senior leader of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group was convicted on terror charges and sentenced to life in prison, the country’s state-owned news agency reported.

According to the Middle East News Agency, a Cairo court found Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting supreme guide of the country’s oldest Islamist organisation, guilty of terror acts that followed the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi.

Last summer, 76-year-old Ezzat was arrested after police found him hiding in an apartment on the outskirts of Cairo.

According to authorities at the time, a search of the apartment uncovered computers and mobile phones with encrypted software that allowed Ezzat to communicate with group members in Egypt and abroad.

Documents with “destructive plans” were also found, police said.

Ezzat had been at large since the summer of 2013, after the military removed Mr Morsi, who hailed from Brotherhood ranks.

Mr Morsi’s short-lived rule proved divisive and provoked mass protests nationwide.

Mr Morsi died after collapsing in court during one of his trials in June 2019.

Ezzat was believed to have fled the country along with many of the group’s leaders following the crackdown on their organisation.

He was named the group’s acting leader in August 2013.

He was convicted of several terror-related crimes and sentenced twice to death in absentia.

Following his arrest, he was retried, as Egyptian law dictates.

Credit: PA News