Marine Le Pen wasted no time in proclaiming 2017 as the year of far-right awakening in Europe. “We are living through the end of one world, and the birth of another,” Ms. Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front party, told a cheering gathering of members of European right-wing parties on Saturday in this Rhine River city to chart a joint path to success in elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany this year. – New York Times
This modest, nondescript house of worship, the largest yet to open in the region, has become a symbol of the precarious position occupied by French Muslims, the country’s largest minority, in a society still reeling from terrorist violence and hurtling toward a watershed presidential election. If the mosque is forced to close, it would mean a major aggression by the state against citizens of a particular faith, violating the age-old promise of a proudly secular republic never to discriminate among citizens on the basis of race or religion. – Washington Post
A 23-year-old French man whom international authorities allege was a leading recruiter for the Islamic State group has been arrested and given preliminary terrorism charges in France. – Associated Press