Middle East expert Pinchas Inbari writes that he has met with several senior European officials who said they see the Israeli-Palestine issue as the most pressing matter for Europe. The logic goes like this: The problem upsets Muslims and Arabs and drives recruitment to Islamic State, which is a direct threat to Europe; so they intend to force Israel to submit to Palestinian demands, believing a Palestinian state would somehow solve the Islamic State problem. Hate crimes strike fear into Jewish communities. In just one week last year eight synagogues were attacked in France and Kosher businesses are regularly smashed and looted as crowds chant ‘Death to Jews’. In Germany recently molotov cocktails were lobbed into the Bergische synagogue and Imam Abu Bilal Ismail called on Allah to ‘destroy the Zionist Jews'. A Dutch' anti-Semitism watchdog had 70+ calls from alarmed Jewish citizens in just one week last year.  Organisations recording anti-Semitic incidents say the trend is inexorable. See also: 

The pressure is building on Vladimir Putin: Russia will be hit by a wave of bankruptcies unless it cuts interest rates very soon, a top financial official warned Monday.  Anatoly Aksakov, president of Russia's regional banking association and deputy chairman of parliament's financial markets committee, said firms were running out of cash. Bankers believe that keeping the situation as it stands will cause a wave of bankruptcies, not only credit institutions but also a number of businesses and companies," Aksakov wrote in a letter to the central bank, according to Russian state media. Aksakov said the central bank must cut rates this month to 15% from 17%, then gradually to 10.5%, the level they were at before the current financial crisis. A central bank rate of 17% meant some companies were having to pay as much as 30% to borrow. The impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine has sparked a cash crunch by shutting many companies out of international funding markets.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck have attended a Berlin vigil organised by Muslim groups to promote tolerance and religious freedom in the country. Organisers say the event aimed to condemn the Paris attacks and show solidarity with the victims. They are also responding to the recent ‘anti-Islamisation’ rallies staged by the Pegida organisation across Germany. The group's latest rally in Dresden drew a record crowd of 25,000. Large anti-Pegida demonstrations took place in other German cities on Monday. President Gauck addressed the vigil at the Brandenburg Gate, saying: ‘We are all Germany.’ He added: ‘Germany has become more diverse through immigration - religiously, culturally and mentally. This diversity has made our country successful, interesting and likeable.’ Aiman Mazyek, head of the German Council of Muslims, told the crowd: ‘We stand together for a Germany that is open to the world, with a big heart, which honours freedom of opinion, of the press and of religion.’ (See also last week’s Prayer Alert.)

Thousands of Germans demonstrated in four cities on Monday in opposition to the weekly rallies in Dresden against the perceived ‘Islamisation’ of Europe that have attracted growing numbers of supporters. Organizers of the demonstrations in Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne and Dresden said they were rallying against racism and xenophobia to promote a message of tolerance instead. Businesses, churches, Cologne’s power company and others kept their buildings and other facilities dark in solidarity with the demonstrations against the ongoing protests by the group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or Pegida. The square around the Cologne Cathedral was plunged into darkness as thousands joined the demonstration. Cologne Cathedral provost Norbert Feldhoff told n-tv that shutting down the lights was an attempt to make the Pegida demonstrators think twice about their protest.

In the heart of Europe in 2015, the killing of cartoonists and journalists for allegedly insulting God still comes as a shock, despite the rising number of such attacks in recent years. The battle within Islam itself between Sunni and Shia, so evident in the wars of the Middle East, and the fight between extremist interpretations of Islam such as those of Islamic State and Muslims who wish to practice their religion in peace, is now being played out on the streets of Europe with potentially devastating consequences for social cohesion. These latest shootings may be the work of "lone wolves" but their consequences will ripple across Europe and provoke much soul-searching about the failure of integration over the past decades. Immigrant communities are already being viewed with increasing suspicion in both France and Germany, with their significant Muslim populations, and even in the UK.

French police launched nationwide raids early on Monday to dismantle a network that was sending jihadists to Syria, a police source said. Elite and anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy, the source told AFP, on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested. In recent months in France - which has Europe's largest Muslim population - there has been growing concern over the hundreds of nationals joining jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. The new reality was driven home in a video from the Islamic State (IS) group, released in mid-November, showing three Kalashnikov-wielding Frenchmen burning their passports and calling on Muslims to join them or stage attacks in France.

A Swedish Christian writes, ‘Here in Sweden the 'Roma people' from Romania is quite an issue. Hundreds of them beg on the streets in the cities. In many places churches are arranging overnight places for them. We also have an influx of refugees especially from Syria. We receive many, many more than other EU countries. For this reason the party in Sweden similar to your UKIP received 13.9% in the recent general elections and this has caused a political crisis. This party, The Swedish Democrats, were able to vote down the new government, so we will need to have a new election in March.' We enjoy lots of lights and candles in our communities and homes during this very dark time of the year, during Advent and Christmas. We've had wonderful Christmas concerts giving out the message of the Light coming into the world. George Verwer has said: 'Let's not fight the darkness, let's spread the Light!'

A new type of anti-immigration appears to be taking hold in Germany with protests against what’s been called the ‘growing Islamisation’ of the country. In Dresden members of PEGIDA or ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West’ held a rally against extremism and perceived abuses of Germany’s asylum system. 'Political refugees are very welcome, but look at our asylum seekers’ homes here. There are only men living there. Where are their families? They are criminals who left their families behind in the war,’ said one PEGIDA demonstrator. Critics of PEGIDA who held their own counter demonstration accused the group of drawing support from the far-right Neo-Nazis. PEGIDA says it is not against Muslims in general but wants to preserve the country’s Judeo-Christian culture. Germany is now the second most popular destination for migrants after the US and is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers.

Islamic supremacists are becoming increasingly violent in Europe. If we do not stop them effectively, where will it end? ‘Immigrant gangs’ is Danish media's euphemism for Muslim gangs. Islamic extremists use immigrant gangs to enforce religious Sharia laws in residential areas throughout Denmark. There is an unholy alliance is between religious extremists and hardcore criminals in residential areas where especially younger people are  to behave in certain ways and women are to dress in particular ways. Gang members typically support individual extremist imams and mosques with a strict interpretation of Islam. People are more afraid of the extremists when they are backed by gang members. This can be seen for example in Tingbjerg. The consequence is that people do not dare to stand up against the extremists, because they know that they will get beaten up by hardened criminals. National Police Research Centre (NEC), which monitors gang activity at home, confirms that the gangs are flirting with religious environments.

Hundreds of young German Islamists have travelled to Syria to fight with the terrorist group Islamic State. Der Spiegel explored the extremist scene in Germany and the fascination with jihad in order to find answers about what drives people to join the murderous cult. Whenever Ismail Cetinkaya runs into one of those young men who want to leave Hamburg to fight in Syria, he asks: ‘Have you ever slept without heat in the winter? Do you know what it's like to live without electricity and running water? Do you think a Kalashnikov works like the controller for your PlayStation 4?’ He also asks whether the young man is leaving his mother behind. And then he quotes the words of the Prophet Mohammed, and says: ‘Paradise lies at the feet of your mother.’ The implication being that those who leave their weeping mothers behind won't enter paradise.