Category Archives: France

French police stop Facebook call to cut Muslims’ throats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Egorger les musulmans Facebook page

French police are trying to track down the instigator of a Facebook page that called on people to cut the throats of Muslims on the Eid Al-Adha holiday. The page has been closed down but its author is being sought for breaking anti-racist laws.

Spotted by the Collective against Islamophobia, the page, reproduced on the collective’s website, was headlined “Cut Muslims’ throats, not sheep’s”. It called on people all over the world to turn to Islamophobic murder on 6 November, the date of Eid Al-Adha which marks the end of the Haj, the piligrimage to Mecca which is one of the obligations of a good Muslim.

During the festivities Muslims sacrifice sheep in honour of Abraham, regarded as a prophet by Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to mark the biblical story of his willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and the Angel Gabriel’s offer of a sheep as a substitute. “At last we will be able to celebrate for a good reason,” the page declared.

The police have declared the page’s message “despicable words which are actionable under law”.

RFI, 9 December 2011

UMP councillor sent racist email

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A politician with the centre-right UMP party near Nice found others didn’t get the joke when he sent a ‘humorous’ email mocking the North African accent.

Gilbert Garelli, a local councillor in La Colle-sur-Loup in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, sent the email to a group of 20 friends. The offending missive was sent on August 1st, the first day of Ramadan, and mis-spelled certain words to mimic the accent.

It ended with the line “I wish you a good Ramadan”, with “I wish” written as “ji souhaite” rather than the correct “je souhaite.” He attached a copy of his Socialist party opponents’ programme to the email, in Arabic, adding “remember to read it from right to left!”

A large number of the recipients reacted with horror. A fellow party member, Corinne Guidon, told local newspaper Nice Matin it was not “her kind of humour.”

“It was just a joke,” Garelli initially told the newspaper but, as the scandal grew, he apologized publicly for his poor taste and sent a conciliatory email to the original recipients.

The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, didn’t see the funny side and has instructed his team to take action. “This is no laughing matter,” Pascal Condomiti, an advisor to the mayor, told Le Figaronewspaper. “We will be meeting about this and will probably suspend him from the party.”

The Local, 5 August 2011

Garelli email

Norwegian government’s naive attitude to immigration is to blame for Breivik killings, says Le Pen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Le Pen and FN anti-Islam posterThe founder of the National Front party in France criticized Norway for its “naivety” in the face of immigration and terrorism and called government inaction more serious than the massacre of 77 people by an anti-Islam extremist.

Jean-Marie Le Pen said the July 22 gun and bomb attack by Anders Behring Breivik – once a member of Norway’s populist right-wing Progress Party – appeared to be the work of a “sick” man, but pointed a finger at Norwegian authorities and society.

“What strikes me as more serious … is the naivety and inaction of the Norwegian government,” said Le Pen, 82, the former party head in a weekly video blog published on the party’s website on Friday.

“The most serious responsibility, it seems to me, is that of the Norwegian government and society which has fallen asleep … which has not taken into account the global danger of massive immigration which is the main reason in this deadly crazy man’s thinking, but also terrorism, which is a global phenomenon.”

Reuters, 30 July 2011

Following as it does the news that a Front National member hailed Breivik as a “defender of the west”, her father’s intervention shows that Marine Le Pen has her work cut out in rebranding the FN as a party that has renounced political extremism.

FN member defends Norway attacker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A member of the Front National has been suspended for defending the work of the Oslo attacker, who killed 76 people on Friday.

Jacques Coutela, who represented the far-right party in local elections in the Yonne earlier this year, wrote a blog post describing Anders Behring Breivik as “an icon” and a “defender of the west”.

The post, which has since been deleted, said: “The reason for the Norway terror attacks: fighting the Muslim invasion, that’s what people don’t want you to know.”

Anti-racism movement MRAP has filed a complaint against Mr Coutela for inciting racial hatred.

However, FN leader Marine Le Pen has accused MRAP of “taking advantage of a terrible event” to target her party. She said: “The Front National of course has nothing to do to the Norwegian slaughter, which is the work of a lone lunatic who must be ruthlessly punished.”

Another Front National member, Laurent Ozon, posted comments on Twitter this weekend linking the attacks to a rise in immigration in Norway.

The Connexion, 27 July 2011

FN member defends Norway attacker

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A member of the Front National has been suspended for defending the work of the Oslo attacker, who killed 76 people on Friday.

Jacques Coutela, who represented the far-right party in local elections in the Yonne earlier this year, wrote a blog post describing Anders Behring Breivik as “an icon” and a “defender of the west”.

The post, which has since been deleted, said: “The reason for the Norway terror attacks: fighting the Muslim invasion, that’s what people don’t want you to know.”

Anti-racism movement MRAP has filed a complaint against Mr Coutela for inciting racial hatred.

However, FN leader Marine Le Pen has accused MRAP of “taking advantage of a terrible event” to target her party. She said: “The Front National of course has nothing to do to the Norwegian slaughter, which is the work of a lone lunatic who must be ruthlessly punished.”

Another Front National member, Laurent Ozon, posted comments on Twitter this weekend linking the attacks to a rise in immigration in Norway.

The Connexion, 27 July 2011

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights blasts burqa bans as ‘sad capitulation to the prejudices of xenophobes’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thomas Hammarberg comment

The Council of Europe, the oldest European institution which specialises in human rights, today (20 July) strongly criticised recent French and Belgian legislation targeting the burqa, a veil that covers entirely women’s faces.

Penalising women who wear the burqa does not liberate them, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, said today in a written statement.

Hammarberg explained that a law in Belgium will enter into force on 23 July, introducing fines and up to seven days of imprisonment for women wearing such dress. Meanwhile in France, since April anyone who wears the niqab or burqa in public is subject to fines of 150 euros and/or “citizenship training”.

He adds that “loud voices” in countries such as Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland are demanding similar measures, while in northern Italy an old anti-terrorist law against concealing the face for security reasons has been used by some local authorities to punish women who wear full-cover veils.

The human rights commissioner rejects the view that such bans ‘liberate’ women, stressing that there is “very little” to show that this is the case.

Instead, Hammarberg insists that the way the dress of a small number of women has been portrayed as a major problem requiring urgent discussion and legislation is “a sad capitulation to the prejudices of xenophobes”.

“Much deeper problems of intercultural tensions and gaps have been side-tracked by the burqa and niqab discussions. Instead of encouraging this unfortunate discourse, political leaders and governments should take more resolute action against hate crimes and discrimination against minorities,” Hammarberg argues.

EurActiv, 20 July 2011

Muslim woman accuses Air France of discrimination

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Air France logoA Virginia woman accused Air France of getting her terminated from the job she held briefly at Dulles International Airport because of her religion. “The hijab, to me, it’s empowerment,” 19-year-old Riham Osman said. “When people, men and women, talk to me, they’re looking at my personality, they’re listening to what I’m saying, they know that I stand for something.”

Osman is a proud Muslim from Herndon who wears a head scarf, or hijab, as a sign of her faith – a sign of her faith that she says got her fired from Air France. According to the copy of her contract she was hired by the staffing agency Aerotek to be a passenger service agent for Air France at Dulles. “I think the fact that I was hired at first with my scarf on shows that Aerotek hired me according to my [qualifications],” Osman said.

On June 2, Osman’s first day of work, an Air France supervisor pulled her from her training session demanding she speak with the person who hired her at Aerotek, Osman said. “He said that apparently Air France has an issue with the scarf that they will not allow me to work  because it violates their uniform policy,” Osman said.

Refusing to take it off, Osman left the airport in tears. Soon after, she contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations for help. Noting the ongoing controversy in France about the legality of wearing a hijab, CAIR filed a complaint and sent a letter to Air France saying in part, “It is clear that a discriminatory dress code implemented in France would not supersede American laws protecting the religious rights of employees. Air France must follow American law and grant reasonable religious accommodations for its employees.”

A spokesperson for Air France acknowledged the company received a letter from CAIR but would say only that Air France is investigating.

After being notified about the situation, Aerotek said it asked Air France to make an exception to the dress code policy for Osman. “Air France declined to make this accommodation and instructed us to end her assignment at Air France,”read a statement from Aerotek.

Osman hopes travelers will boycott Air France until she gets an apology.

NBC Washington, 23 June 2011

Lyon: deputy mayor conducting marriage ceremony forces bride to remove headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

French news sources (see here, here and here) have reported on the case of a Muslim couple, Samira and Mohamed ****, who went to the town hall in the 9th district of Lyon on 4 June to get married.

The Coalition Against Racism and Islamophobia (CRI) reported that Samira was immediately challenged by the deputy mayor, Fatiha ben Ahmed of the Europe Écologie – Les Verts party, who was responsible for conducting the marriage ceremony. Ben Ahmed demanded that Samira should remove her headscarf and threatened the couple that she would not proceed with the ceremony unless the bride did as she was told. Under pressure from the deputy mayor and lacking knowledge of the regulations, Samira complied and removed her hijab.

It has been pointed out that there is in fact no legislation that allows a mayor or his deputy to refuse to marry a couple on the grounds that the bride wears a headscarf. Fatiha ben Ahmed’s demand was particularly discriminatory, given that it is a French tradition that brides wear a tulle veil at marriage ceremonies.

The Coalition Against Racism and Islamophobia wrote to the mayor Alain Giordano protesting about the couple’s disgraceful treatment. Giordano replied that he had summoned ben Ahmed to his office to explain her behaviour and that the case would be discussed at a council meeting. The mayor gave his assurance that there would be no repetition of the incident.

Islamophobic extremists to hold joint conference in France

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SIOA-SIOE

Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) are to hold their first joint conference in July. The organizations will hold the event in Strasbourg, France, on July 2. Among the speakers will be a representative of the English Defence League (EDL).

SIOA and SIOE claim to “defend human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech” against what they call “Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the West.” This summit will feature the first speech in Europe by Executive Director of SIOA, Pamela Geller.

The confirmed list of speakers also includes Robert Spencer; SIOE Director Anders Gravers; Roberta Moore of the Jewish Division – EDL; Conny Meier of the German group Pax Europa; and Bulgarian presidential candidate Pavel Chernev.

Asian Image, 21 June 2011

See also Atlas Shrugs, 21 June 2011

French court hears first case against women who refuse to accept veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Meaux veil court case
Hind (right) with supporters outside the court

A French court Thursday heard the country’s first case against women refusing to obey a new law banning the wearing of Islamic face veils in public.

The two women, who wear the niqab, were ordered to appear before the court in the town of Meaux, about 40 kilometres east of Paris, for going to the local town hall on May 5 with their faces veiled.

Both the women live in the Paris region. One of them could not be present at the hearing. The other woman, Hind, 31, a mother of a three-year-old, was barred from entering the courtroom after refusing to remove her veil for the duration of the hearing. “I accepted to undergo an identity check (by briefly showing her face). But they refused all compromise,” she told the German Press Agency dpa.

The two women were booked by police after showing up at Meaux town hall with a birthday cake for Mayor Jean-Francois Cope, who is also leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP). The cake was made of almonds, a word which sounds like the French word for fines (amendes), and was meant as a dig at the government over the timid application by the authorities of the two-month-old law.

While several women have been booked by police, only one has been fined so far, according to Rachid Nekkaz, founder of Don’t Touch My Constitution, a group lobbying against the ban.

Hind said she hoped to be fined, so that she could challenge the law, which she sees as an attack on her freedom of religion, in the European Court of Human Rights.

DPA, 16 June 2011