Maybe I’m missing something here, but what’s wrong with reaffirming France’s secular traditions? We’re talking about France, not some hard-line, conservative Islamic nation. At some point we have to STOP rooting for the “underdog,” especially when the “underdog” is the Muslim-machine. Would Iran, Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan give a shit about French history or tradition? NO, they wouldn’t! So why do the French need to be sympathetic to Muslims, because the French are more civilized? That’s not a valid reason. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ousted adviser on diversity called the president’s conservative party the “plague of Muslims” amid a growing furor over its plans to debate Islam’s role in France.
Even Prime Minister Francois Fillon, a prominent member of the governing UMP party, is distancing himself from its debate next week on secularism and religion in France. Fillon said Thursday he won’t take part.
Many of the debate’s critics fear it could lead to the stigmatization of French Muslims. Its backers say it is needed to reaffirm France’s secular traditions and address evolutions in French society — such as a growing demand for mosques and Islamic butchers — in a country with western Europe’s largest Muslim population.
Sarkozy fired his diversity adviser Abderrahmane Dahmane last month after Dahmane criticized the debate.
In an interview Thursday, Dahmane told The Associated Press that he wants to rally Muslims against the UMP and its leader, Jean-Francois Cope, in charge of the debate.
“We are going to engage the whole (Muslim) community against Jean-Francois Cope and against his party. Cope’s UMP is the plague of Muslims,” he said.
Dahmane is a controversial figure of Algerian descent who has called on French Muslims to wear a green star Tuesday in a sign of protest, similar to the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear under Nazi occupation.
