Word: dutchness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...London's 2012 Olympics drew over 275,000 signatures. That same year, members of Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party "blessed," as they called it, a site reserved for a mosque in Padua by parading on it with a pig, an animal deemed unclean by Muslims. A 2004 Dutch opinion poll found that mosques, which in the 1990s had been lauded as "enrichments to the urban landscape," were now derided as "unimaginative," "ugly" and "cheap imitations...
...celebrated in a different way in the Floating Mosque currently under construction off the coast of Dubai. Designed by Dutch firm Waterstudio.NL, the arresting building, which is due to be finished by 2011, resembles a futuristic submarine rising from the Persian Gulf with minarets so short and slender they could be periscopes. Built of floating modules of concrete and foam, it will be cooled by seawater pumped through the roof, walls and floors...
Back in Europe, a group of young Dutch architects led by Ergün Erkoçu wanted their concept for the Polder Mosque to achieve a similar level of cool. Riffing on the Dutch idea of seeking consensus, their design features not minarets but windmills. Inside, they planned space for a hammam (or bathhouse) and a row of shops. The mosque was never meant to exist but to generate discussion. Mission accomplished: elders have sniffed that it isn't traditional enough and Dutch-born Muslims eager to see the mosque's role expand beyond prayer have applauded...
...commands the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, many of the troop contingents are sent with caveats that prevent them from being used in combat. Instead, the bulk of the fighting there has been done by the 36,000 American soldiers - and small contingents of British, Canadian and Dutch troops...
...European nations underline their rising aid contributions, their support for police and civilian projects, and even increases in troop levels. Combined European Commission and European Union government aid to the country for 2002-2006 totaled $5 billion, with an extra $1 billion earmarked for 2007-2010. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told the conference that the challenge now was far more than just killing terrorists, and involved security, governance, social and economic progress, and regional integration. "Afghanistan is not an island," he said. "Its challenges are interlinked with the region through ethnic, religious and political bonds." (See TIME's special...