superb review at altmuslim of “Can Islam Be French?
Latest Updates: france RSS
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aziz
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midwinterspring
I was particularly heartened by the earlier news of France’s New Anti-Capitalist Party running Ilham Moussaid, a Muslim woman (who happens to wear the hijab), as one of its candidates for the upcoming elections. I’m always happy to see fellow Muslims on the far left.
But we should have known the defenders of French “enlightenment” couldn’t sit idly by in the face of the imminent threat posed to the Republic by a piece of fabric:
Today, in a sign of how deep concerns are running, a leading feminist group announced it would file an official complaint against the NPA’s list of candidates in the Vaucluse département to protest against what it called an “anti-secular, anti-feminist and anti-republican” stunt.
Moussaid’s reaction:
“It is with great sadness that I watch … my life reduced to my headscarf. It is with great sadness that I hear that my personal beliefs are a danger to others while I advocate friendship, respect, tolerance, solidarity and equality for all human beings.”
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thabet
Far-left party reveals ‘veiled’ female candidate:
All the more so because the NPA (New Anti-capitalist Party), led by Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, is a party that generates headlines for its extreme left wing position on issues including militant secularism.
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johnpi
Italy ‘to follow France with Muslim full-face veil ban.’
Italy may soon follow France and seek to impose a ban on full-face Muslim veils.
The country’s equal opportunities minister, Mara Carfagna, said the Italian government would work more closely on four draft bills on the burqa and niqab already circulating in parliamentary committees.
This week a French parliamentary committee called for women wearing the niqab — a veil with just a gap for the eyes that is worn with a long robe — to be refused access to public transport, schools, universities, post offices and hospitals.
Ms Carfagna, a former showgirl who prime minister Silvio Berlusconi made a minister in May 2008, said: “I completely agree with the French initiative, which I think will push other European countries and hence, also Italy, to enact laws on this issue.
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johnpi
There must be over 50 stories on the wires this morning about the impending French face veil ban.
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johnpi
France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil.
The man she married is French, her four children were born in France and she speaks French with only a trace of her native Arabic tongue. Faiza Silmi contends her clothes — a head-to-toe robe and filmy tissue covering her face — are the reason France has denied her citizenship in her adopted land.
The 32-year-old Moroccan may soon be facing an even fiercer blow. A top French lawmaker submitted a draft law this week that would ban such Islamic dress anywhere in public, a measure that would set a European precedent and trap thousands of women between their religious convictions and the law of the land.
“They say I’m too attached to my religion,” Silmi told The Associated Press at an empty restaurant near her home southwest of Paris, her large eyes peering from a slit in her veil. “Lots of Christians live in Morocco and we don’t make them wear scarves.”
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johnpi
‘Marseillais Islam’: The New York Times had a feature article today on responses to a large new mosque that is being built in France’s second-largest city.
The large new mosque, which its builders call “the symbol of Marseillais Islam,” is a source of pride here in France’s second-largest city, which is at least 25 percent Muslim. But it is also cause for alarm, Mr. Geisser said, embodying the paradox that visible signs of integration set off xenophobic anxiety. “All these symbols reveal a deeper, more lasting presence of Islam,” he said. “It’s the passage of something temporary to something that is implanted and takes root.”
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johnpi
A French parliamentarian has started writing the actual legislation to ban the veil in France so that it will be waiting in the wings when a nonbinding report is released in January that is expected to condemn the veil as ‘an affront to French values.’
The pol has said he not only wants a ban in public buildings but also in the streets of France. Opponents have said the effort to write the bill is premature.
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johnpi
Besson said he believed a formal ban on veils that cover the face and body seemed to him “unavoidable,” with a ban in public services as a minimum step.
Whether such veils are banned or not, he said he intends to personally move forward to ensure that women wearing such veils and seeking French nationality or residence cards are denied.
“I want the wearing of the full veil to be systematically considered as proof of insufficient integration into French society, creating an obstacle to gaining (French) nationality,” he said.
He said he would advise prefects, the highest state representative in the various French regions, that the wearing of such veils is a motive for not delivering 10-year residence cards.
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johnpi
French ruling party to seek ban on Burqa in January, newspaper reports.
While a law prohibiting the garment completely might be difficult, the group might seek a ban on the burqua in the state’s civil service, in public buildings and on streets, the newspaper said.
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johnpi
French Muslim leader says full-body veil is a door to radical Islam but any ban carries risks.
The head of France’s Muslim council said Wednesday that the full-body veil worn by a minority of Muslims in France is an “entry way” to radical Islam, but that a national debate over whether to ban the garment in public is stigmatizing the entire Muslim community.
Mohammed Moussaoui told a panel of lawmakers that any decision to outlaw the veils that cover the body and face risks feeding a sense of discrimination.
The debate “has taken on unexpected proportions” and “Muslims are increasingly finding themselves confronted with stereotypes whose consequence is the stigmatization of an entire religion,” Moussaoui said, referring to what many Muslims say is a tendency to group them into a single unit be they moderate or radical.
….The Muslim grouping said it preferred to try to dissuade women from wearing the veil through dialogue, saying any law could prove counterproductive, raising sympathy for those who wear the garment and feeding radical agendas.
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thabet
Keep your veils, but give us your dinars, riyals and dirhams:
Another tax reform, currently under review by the constitutional council, could allow Islamic “sukuk” bonds to be issued in France and the opening of Islamic retail banking services to French Muslims in 2010.
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thabet
Given the old joke about Muslim engineers and terrorism, I’d prefer it if this man was referred to as a ‘physicist’ rather than ‘engineer’. Let the scientists carry some of the blame for once (they seem to take all the credit for the transformation and emergence of all the good things in the modern world):
The 32-year-old man, who was detained with his brother, 25, is suspected of providing a list of terrorist targets to North African Islamic radicals. He worked for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, according to French police sources.
On this story, headline of the week goes to Guy Aitchison:
AL QUIDA TERRORISTS PLAN DEADLIEST ATTACK YET WITH BLACKHOLES
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thabet
Superior Civilisation!
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thabet
French football team made up of Muslims refuses to play a football made up of gays:
The Creteil Bebel Muslim team pulled out of its planned tie with Paris Foot Gay (PFG) at the weekend, saying it went against their religious beliefs to play against homosexuals.
The PFG said they would sue Creteil Bebel for homophobia.
[...]
Creteil Bebel defended their pullout, saying their religious convictions were much more important than any sporting event.
“As a Muslim, I have the right not to play against homosexuals because I don’t share their ideas,” Zahir Belgarbi, one of the team directors, told France Bleu radio.
They seem a little selective in which ideas they don’t seek to share a football pitch with. Do they oppose teams made up of people who have sex outside of marriage, drink alcohol, eat pork, and wear those embarrassingly tight 1970s football shorts?
More importantly, surely they must have been aware as to who their potential opponents might be when they entered this amateur tournament? If this was a league-style tournament, then they must have known. Even if it was a knockout, they would only have been hedging their bets (haram!) and hope Paris Foot Gay would be knocked out (or they themselves were eliminated from the tournament).
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thabet
I’m taking this with the necessary amount of sodium chloride, but a report at a report at an unfriendly news outlet claims Nicolas Sarkozy thinks Barack Obama is ‘incredibly naive and egotistical’. (Sarkozy calling someone else egotistical is a bit of a joke.)
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thabet
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thabet
We don’t like your religious symbols, but we want your cash:
Since launching a drive to develop Sharia-compliant financing and draw Middle Eastern capital to France around two years ago, Paris has made large strides on the legal and fiscal front, with much of the framework already set.
(Via FaithWorld.)
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thabet
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thabet
Britain, France and Germany call for a new Afghanistan
(exit) planconference:In the wake of the the second presidential election in Afghanistan, Germany’s Chancellor Merkel said she would like to create some momentum in that country. “Now we are coming to a transitional phase,” she said.
I wonder if the Europeans told their American counterpart about this
(exit) planconference before announcing it to the world… -
thabet
Talking of markets, consumers, and religious rites and festivals:
According to a recent study by the Solis agency, which specializes in ‘ethnic marketing’, the halal market (in France) is valued at close to 4 billion euro for 2009, and is estimated to grow at annual rate of 15%. According to Solis, 93% of North Africans and 55% of sub-Saharan Africans buy halal products.
In Italy, a hotel now caters especially for guests who are fasting.
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thabet
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thabet
It says a lot for much-vaunted ‘French values’ that less than 500 women can threaten the French Fifth Republic.
Hossam el-Hamalawy was right when he noted:
Also, according to The New York Times report, Nicolas Sarkozy “defends participation in the Afghan war as a matter of women’s rights”. I have an example below of Sarkozy clearly discussing women’s rights with his friend.
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thabet
Some useful links and background from The Moor Next Door on the recent terrorist attack on the French embassy in Mauritania.
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thabet
France 24 has a series on observing Ramadan in France.
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thabet
A mere 367 Muslim women may bring down the Fifth Republic.
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thabet
Just what Muslim women in France need: a different set of fanatics purporting to defend their honour and dignity:
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thabet
Perhaps Yvonne Ridley will turn up on the BBC and complain about the lack of coverage this murder of a member of an ethnic/religious minority in a European city has received?
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thabet
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thabet
Nicolas Sarkozy tells his “friend” that black coverings over women are ‘debasing’.
