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| Europe |
| Le Pen 'cock-a-hoop' |
| 2006-04-24 |
| Jean-Marie Le Pen, that old stalwart of far Right off-the-wallism, is cock-a-hoop after one of those grim polls portraying the French, or rather too many of them, in a less than savoury light. What the survey found was that 35 per cent considered the extreme Right to enrich political debate in France, while a slightly smaller proportion (34 per cent) believed that end of the political spectrum was close to its own concerns. It was only a few weeks ago that similar numbers admitted to racist views, and I think we all know where, to a large degree, these sentiments come from. The popular fear and mistrust of Islam. Such feeling is evident wherever you go in France. The reasons are obvious: unrest on suburban estates, rising crime, immigration, stubborn unemployment and, of course, the constant fear of terrorist attack. All, to one extent or another, are associated with Europe’s largest Muslim population (even if French republican principles prevent us from knowing the true numbers). Reasonable people do not despise or suspect anyone because he or she adheres to one religious faith or another. But whatever view we take on the Israeli/Palestinian crisis, it has become very difficult in recent years to think of a terrorist threat that comes anywhere close to that posed by groups or individuals claiming to act in the name of Islam. Whether hijacking jets, blowing up the Tube or Spanish suburban trains or beheading Christian schoolgirls, these terrorists and their apologists assure us that their actions are consistent with “God’s will”. It is sad, but hardly surprising, that we pay insufficient heed to the protestations of moderate Muslim leaders – and ordinary citizens – when they defend Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance. But how things have moved on. Think back to the lowest points of IRA terrorism. Even the terrorists or their sympathisers joined in debates about civilian casualties and issues of whether, when “soft” targets were chosen, warnings had been given and, if so, how accurate they were. We can take with a hefty pinch of salt the sincerity of such concerns. But the average Islamist would regard them as prissy in the extreme, since there is no longer any need to wonder, as some of us did after IRA atrocities, whether civilian deaths were really intended or a mere hazard of conflict. The object of terrorism has become one of causing as many as possible. We are all infidels and thus guilty, which must logically include Muslims unlucky enough to be around when the bomb goes off. One of the London bombers even recorded a video making the very point that if you elect a government of which a terrorist disapproves, you must expect to be blown to pieces as a consequence. And it is by exploiting fears aroused by such developments, and by the other matters arising from generations of immigration, that the far Right is able to prosper. I do not necessarily have any easy answers. It seems, to me, desperately unfair that decent people who happen to be Muslims should increasingly be seen as part of a problem they did not create and for which they are not responsible. When the French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot were kidnapped in Iraq, the only credible demand ever made was that France should abandon a democratically approved law prohibiting headscarves at school. I have the deepest admiration for those Muslim girls across France who, despite their great resentment of the ban, also felt so French that they went to school anyway, determined not to be seen to be reinforcing the hostage-takers’ supposed motivation. Over lunch with an MP from the ruling centre-Right UMP the other day, I heard a gloomy analysis: that if mainstream conservative politicians continue to pussyfoot around the delicate issues of the day, they will be humiliated in next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Gloomy not because I especially care about the fate of the UMP. But because in the absence so far, despite the ascendancy of Ségolène Royal, of a truly coherent Left-of-centre alternative, the extremists – and this time I am talking about politicians, who are at least cuddlier than terrorists – are the likeliest beneficiaries. Le Pen feels sufficiently emboldened just now to announce that he can win the race for the presidential elections. Since I am all too close, geographically, to the Elysée, I could joke about the tone of my neighbourhood being lowered. But let’s hope it would be a joke and no more, while remembering that in 2002, Chirac’s impressive 82 per cent of the poll overlooked the inconvenient fact that five-and-a-half million French people voted for the National Front leader. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Why can't we hold the practitioners of Islam accountable for actions taken in the name of Allan? Otherwise, we might have to blame the...Jooos, or even ourselves. And where's the percentage in *that*? What? Oh. Never mind. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-04-24 09:28 |
| #4 Reasonable people do not despise or suspect anyone because he or she adheres to one religious faith or another. Really now ? How 20th century of you. I consider myself reasonable, and I do suspect all things Islam. Maybe reasonable people allow themselves to change with the times and the facts. Wake up, Le Pen. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-04-24 09:24 |
| #3 one of those grim polls portraying the French, or rather too many of them, in a less than savoury light. Nothing unsavory in repaying ill with ill. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-04-24 07:21 |
| #2 Oopps the preceeding was mine. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-04-24 06:41 |
| #1 It seems, to me, desperately unfair that decent people who happen to be Muslims should increasingly be seen as part of a problem they did not create and for which they are not responsible. Sorry, but that is like saying that people who happenned to be Nazis didn't have responsability for WWII and Auschwitz. People are not responsible fopr their race but they are responsable for their ideas. If you are born into a religion then at one point it is your duty to read the f..g book and see what it advocates. Then if it advocates evil and you decide to stay don't complain when you get an infidel nuke on your head. I have the deepest admiration for those Muslim girls across France who, despite their great resentment of the ban, also felt so French that they went to school anyway, determined not to be seen to be reinforcing the hostage-takersÂ’ supposed motivation. Their resentement? Pleaaaaaaaase. How many of these girls wore veils only due to parental pressure? And how many parents veiled their girls due to islamist pressure? One of the consequences of allowing veiled girls (like France did) or sharia courtsb (like in canada) is that the islamists can visit people and tell them "Why do you allow your daughters go unveiled/do you go to regular courts? Are you a Muslim or an apostate?". And we know the fate of apostates. We have to make Muslims feel that our societies are all willing to shelter those who want yto leave Islam or content temselves with mere lip service. Oh and BTW he is telling he finds admirable those Muslim girls who continued going to the school provided to them for free by the French tax payers while saying nothing about the North-African girls who conttnue to defy the Islamists by not allowing to be cowed into wearing veils. These are the girls to be admired not those who have embraced islamo-fascism's racism and misoginy. |
| Posted by: nd 2006-04-24 06:41 |