Great warrior
05-20-2018, 07:08 AM
Opinion – Mehdi Hasan
Consider: Successive French governments have criminalized the face veil (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/11/france-bans-burqa-and-niqab) and banned the headscarf (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3478895.stm) in schools. French mayors have targeted Muslim women who want to cover up at the beach (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/french-mayors-burkini-ban-court-ruling) and Muslim school kids who try to have a pork-free lunch (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/08/french-town-bans-pork-free-meals-anti-muslim-beaucaire). The French president — and new liberal heartthrob (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/22/emmanuel-macron-trump-france-leader-218067) — Emmanuel Macron has introduced draconian counterterror legislation that United Nations human rights experts have warned (http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22165&LangID=E) could have a discriminatory impact (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/28/macrons-counter-terror-bill-risks-frances-human-rights-record-says-un) on Muslims in particular.
And the latest big idea? To go after the Quran. On April 21, the newspaper Le Parisien published a manifesto (http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/manifeste-contre-le-nouvel-antisemitisme-21-04-2018-7676787.php) “against the new anti-Semitism,” signed by 300 public figures — ranging from former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, to actor Gérard Depardieu and singer Charles Aznavour. According to The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/france-delete-verses-quran/559550/), the manifesto states that “11 Jews have been assassinated — and some tortured — by radical Islamists” in France, and demands that “the verses of the Quran calling for murder and punishment of Jews, Christians, and nonbelievers be struck to obsolescence by religious authorities,” so that “no believer can refer to a sacred text to commit a crime.”
https://islamicnafahat.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/french-anti-islam-movement-has-new-rallying-cry/
Such rhetoric is a reflection both of Gallic bigotry and sheer stupidity, a toxic combination of ignorance and privilege.
France has a long history of anti-Semitism, from the Dreyfus Affair in the late 19th century, to the collaborationist Vichy government’s complicity in the Holocaust. According to a recent survey (http://www.regards.fr/societe/article/les-juifs-sont-ils-en-danger-en-france) of French public opinion, reported Karina Piser in The Atlantic, “35 percent of French people believe Jews ‘have a particular rapport with money;’ 40 percent think that ‘for French Jews, Israel counts more than France;’ and 22 percent think that ‘Jews have too much power.’”
French should be ashamed of their disbelief and Ingratitude.
Consider: Successive French governments have criminalized the face veil (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/11/france-bans-burqa-and-niqab) and banned the headscarf (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3478895.stm) in schools. French mayors have targeted Muslim women who want to cover up at the beach (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/french-mayors-burkini-ban-court-ruling) and Muslim school kids who try to have a pork-free lunch (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/08/french-town-bans-pork-free-meals-anti-muslim-beaucaire). The French president — and new liberal heartthrob (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/22/emmanuel-macron-trump-france-leader-218067) — Emmanuel Macron has introduced draconian counterterror legislation that United Nations human rights experts have warned (http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22165&LangID=E) could have a discriminatory impact (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/28/macrons-counter-terror-bill-risks-frances-human-rights-record-says-un) on Muslims in particular.
And the latest big idea? To go after the Quran. On April 21, the newspaper Le Parisien published a manifesto (http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/manifeste-contre-le-nouvel-antisemitisme-21-04-2018-7676787.php) “against the new anti-Semitism,” signed by 300 public figures — ranging from former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, to actor Gérard Depardieu and singer Charles Aznavour. According to The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/france-delete-verses-quran/559550/), the manifesto states that “11 Jews have been assassinated — and some tortured — by radical Islamists” in France, and demands that “the verses of the Quran calling for murder and punishment of Jews, Christians, and nonbelievers be struck to obsolescence by religious authorities,” so that “no believer can refer to a sacred text to commit a crime.”
https://islamicnafahat.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/french-anti-islam-movement-has-new-rallying-cry/
Such rhetoric is a reflection both of Gallic bigotry and sheer stupidity, a toxic combination of ignorance and privilege.
France has a long history of anti-Semitism, from the Dreyfus Affair in the late 19th century, to the collaborationist Vichy government’s complicity in the Holocaust. According to a recent survey (http://www.regards.fr/societe/article/les-juifs-sont-ils-en-danger-en-france) of French public opinion, reported Karina Piser in The Atlantic, “35 percent of French people believe Jews ‘have a particular rapport with money;’ 40 percent think that ‘for French Jews, Israel counts more than France;’ and 22 percent think that ‘Jews have too much power.’”
French should be ashamed of their disbelief and Ingratitude.