Greetings, I am trying to find out information about Muslim
Politicians in Europe. Specifically, I would like to the numbers, at
both the national and local levels, for the following countries:
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, United Kingdom,
Belgium. Names and countries of origins of these politicians would
also be useful, but not necessary.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 22 Oct 2003 13:45 PDT

I have found a French-language web site that provides a considerable
amount of information on politicians of "non-European origin",
especially those elected, in four of the countries you have listed:
France, Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium.  While in many instances
their religion is not specifically identified, the names and countries
of origin provide strong indications in most cases as to whether they
are Muslim.  The site also contains a small amount of relevant
information as to the other four countries, though nothing specific
about numbers or names of politicians.  Knowing French would be very
helpful for reading this site; but you can still get some information
by looking at the numbers, names, and places of origin, and by using a
web translation engine (to which I can point you if you need it).

I am certain that you would benefit from the information I have found.
 At the same time, I recognize that it is not all of the information
you have requested.  This is a common problem where a question has
many components -- in this case, multiple countries, and multiple
types of information for each country.  Google Answers itself
suggests:

"Break up multi-part questions.  Multi-part questions often do not get
answered because they can be difficult to answer well.  If you have a
complex, multi-part question, you will typically get better results by
posting parts of the question separately, so that Researchers can
choose to answer the parts of the question they find most interesting.
 This way, too, you can benefit from the expertise of multiple
Researchers rather than relying on only one."

"Google Answers: Help & Tips - How to get a better answer to your
question"
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/help.html#howtospecify

In this situation, I suggest that if you would like for me to provide
the information as an answer, you can reduce the price to what you
think would be appropriate for an answer.  (You can change the price
by going to "My Account," selecting "My Unanswered Questions",
clicking on the question, and then clicking on "Change Question
Parameters" to modify the pricing.)  Then, once you read my answer and
look at the web pages I have cited, you can determine whether you
would like to post one or more questions, at whatever price you think
appropriate, with respect to other information you might want.

What do you think of my proposal?  Let me know by posting a
clarification, and then I would be happy to post an answer if you
would like me to.

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Clarification of Question by hrashid-ga on 22 Oct 2003 19:56 PDT

Thank you for your prompt reply. I should have mentioned I have
already been using the following site,
http://www.suffrage-universel.be/, which sounds like the one you've
found. I'm looking for corroboration of these individuals as I have
only been able to surmise religious affiliation.

If you can aid in finding something similar for Italy, Spain and
Sweden, I would be greatly indebted. I see no reason to lower the
amount being offered if you can supply the quality of information as
above for these three countries. I understand the question is still
broad and multi-component, but I've found many of these sites are
inter-connected. These three countries are now my primary focus, and
you can ignore the others.

Thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 22 Oct 2003 20:12 PDT

That is indeed the site I found.  I didn't see any other sites with
this sort of detailed information, but perhaps one of the Researchers
will find one.

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Clarification of Question by hrashid-ga on 25 Oct 2003 05:15 PDT

Sorry for the delay in follow-up. Please post the website as an answer. Regards.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 25 Oct 2003 08:00 PDT

I would usually jump at the chance to post an answer.  But I just want
to make sure, since I'm not providing a site that you didn't know
about already.

In any event, you can confirm here whether you want me to post this
answer.

Limiting my search to the UK, I found:
"Khalid Mahmood has become Britain's second Muslim MP ... The former
city councillor, originally from Kashmir, joins his Labour colleague
Mohammad Sarwar, who was returned to the House of Commons with an
increased majority in Glasgow Govan ... A record 49 Muslim candidates,
up from 39 in 1997, in last Thursday's General Election. The number
included 27 from the three main parties, but the overwhelming majority
were positioned in virtually 'unwinnable' seats.... In Bradford North,
Conservative candidate Zahid Iqbal cut the majority held by Labour's
first Mormon MP...   in Bradford West, Mohammad Riaz failed to reduce
the majority held by Labour's Sikh MP Marsha Singh. ... Conservative
... Muslim convert Rasjid Skinner, who more than halved Reg Prentice's
majority in Pendle...  In nearby Bolton, Haroon Rashid
gained a 5.7 per cent swing against Labour Jewish MP Brian Iddon.
Among the 10 Muslim Liberal Democrat candidates, ... only two ... made
any significant progress. In Manchester's Withington constituency,
Yasmin Zalzala advanced
from third to second place....  in Sheffield, Ali Qadar cut Labour's
majority by a quarter. In Britain's most populous Muslim constituency,
Birmingham
Sparkbrook and Small Heath, no less than six Muslim candidates
contested the seat... "  Muslim News, June 2001,
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/index/press.php?pr=122

Local councillors: 217 Muslims were listed in May 2000.  Of these, 9
were women.  Of the total, 1 was in Wales, 4 in Scotland. 87 in SE
England, including 63 are in London, 50 in NW England, including 28 in
Lancashire and 21 in Greater Manchester, 35 in Central England,
including, 16 in the West Midlands, 34 in the North, mainly Yorkshire,
4 in the East, 2 in the South and 0 in SW England.  This comes to less
than one per council (total number local councils in 387 in England
alone.  The party affiliations are: 161 Labour, 27 Liberal Democrats,
23 Conservatives, 5 Justice Party, and 1 Central Offices. Source
Muslim News May 2001
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=209

Netherlands:
"There are five Muslim MPs (3 Moroccans and 2 Turks). Their ethnic
belongings play a role in the election campaigns and they are within
their parties the specialists on minority issues. Their religious
background is not stressed, however. A Muslim MP for the Christian
Democrat party, who did try to get attention for religious questions,
was not re-elected in 1998.
- In the town councils, a variety of Muslims have been elected. Also
here, their religious background is not accentuated.
There is no Islamic party and no political party has a program for or
against Islam."
http://www.nocrime.org/pages/netherlands_en.html

Sweden:
"It is, for example, repeatedly pointed out that of 349 members of
Parliament only three are Muslims...  Even in the political councils
in the
immigrant dense areas in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö earlier
mentioned the
immigrants themselves are very few and far apart.
http://www.emz-berlin.de/projekte/pdf/Muslims_in_Schweden.pdf