E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Four preachers banned from entering France
[Emirates 24/7] La Belle France said Thursday it had banned four Mohammedan preachers from entering La Belle France to attend an Islamic conference, saying their "calls for hatred and violence" were a threat to public order.

President Nicolas Sarkozy
...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit...
had wanted to ban the high-profile Islamic holy mans from attending the conference next month in the wake of a series of killings by Al Qaeda inspired gunman Mohamed Merah that shocked La Belle France.

Saudi holy mans Ayed Bin Abdallah Al Qarni and Abdallah Basfar, Egyptian holy man Safwat Al Hijazi and a former mufti of Jerusalem Akrama Sabri are banned from entering La Belle France, a statement said.

"These people's positions and statements calling for hatred and violence seriously damage republican principles and, in the current context, represent a serious threat to public order," said the statement from Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Interior Minister Claude Gueant.

The ministers also voiced "regret" that prominent Swiss intellectual Tariq Ramadan has been invited to the April 6-9 meeting organised by the Union of Islamic Organisations in La Belle France (UOIF).

They said his "positions and statements are against the republican spirit, which does not do any service to La Belle France's Mohammedans".

La Belle France cannot prevent Ramadan from entering as Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
is a member of Europe's visa-free Schengen zone.

Influential Qatari preacher Yusuf Al Qaradawi and Mahmud Al Masri of Egypt have decided not to come for the conference, the statement said.

Ramadan is considered one of Europe's leading Mohammedan thinkers and was an adviser to former British prime minister Tony Blair.

His grandfather founded Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, of which his father was a senior member exiled by former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

He has been barred from entering US territory since 2004.

Sarkozy said on Monday that Qaradawi, 86, an influential Qatar-based Mohammedan holy man, was not welcome in La Belle France.

Qaradawi, who hosts a popular show on Al-Jazeera satellite television, backed the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and has launched a fund-raising effort for the Syrian opposition.
That ban, which has now turned into a withdrawal, was criticised by the International Union of Mohammedan Scholars which Qaradawi heads.

The union said that Qaradawi is "a moderate scholar who contributed to combating extremism in Islamic thoughts."

The holy man is accused of having made anti-Semitic and homophobic statements and was banned from entering Britannia in 2008. He has been banned from entering the United States since 1999.

Posted by: Fred 2012-03-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=341858