Like Weeds
The building of mosques is still in full swing throughout France. While some projects are thwarted or delayed, others forge ahead. A new French website called Observatoire de l'Islamisation keeps track of the latest additions to the growing catalog of mosques and of the steady encroachment of Islam into French life. One post begins with this invitation:
"The Association of Cultural Activities and Exchanges (AAEC) has the honor of inviting you to the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the Islamic Cultural Center of Villeneuve d'Ascq on Sunday March 11, or the 21st of Safar 1428, at 2:30 p.m.! You will be present at an event long-awaited by all the faithful of the city and the region: the first shovelful! A few months from now, Allah willing, the mosque of Villeneuve d'Ascq will be part of the landscape and the heritage of the city and area around Lille."
The ceremony will be attended by the socialist mayor Jean-Michel Stievenard and by Mr. Amar Lasfar, rector of the great mosque of Lille. An Islamist who belongs to the UOIF (Union of French Islamic Organizations), Lasfar revealed in a 1999 interview with the magazine Homme et Migration that he rejected the concept of republican citizenship for which he substituted adherence to the umma, where sharia law would be substituted for the impious laws of the French Republic in certain territorial enclaves: "In Islam the notion of citizenship does not exist, but that of community is very strong, because recognizing a community is recognizing the laws that govern it. We are working towards a recognition by the French Republic of the notion of community. Then, we will be able to constitute an Islamic community, strengthened by those laws that we have in common with the Republic, and then apply our own laws to our community."
In the same vein (...) he affirmed: "Assimilation presupposes that the Islamic populations eventually meld into the population. This is out of the question because that means abandoning Islamic law (...) There will be no violation of this law."
Note: I'm not sure I disagree with Lasfar. But what he is really saying is that Islam is not compatible with France, and must live by its own laws, at France's expense. His notion of loyalty to community is not unlike that of many French patriots and "identitaires". But the French government is working harder on behalf of the Muslim community than on behalf of the French community. "Muslim communautarisme" is subsidized while French identity groups are labeled "racist". Furthermore, a deep knowledge of mathematics is not necessary to realize that these Muslims "enclaves" he spoke of will grow by leaps and bounds, while the French communities diminish, to become "isolates", as Jean Raspail has said.
A comment to the article by a reader well-versed in mosque construction informs us of the following projects:
Seine-Saint-Denis, Pré St. Gervais: The socialist mayor is considering giving land free of charge for the construction of a mosque.
The city council of Roubaix agreed to a 99-year lease at the rate of one euro per year for the building of a mosque. Fortunately the plan was judged illegal by the Lille Administrative Tribunal.
The socialist mayor of Muret granted 2000 square meters of municipal property located on Rue Notre-Dame!!! to Muslim associations for the building of a mosque. Meanwhile, while the plans are being arranged, the faithful were graciously given a house with garden.
The municipality of Alfortville decided on its own initiative to build a mosque with 700,000 euros of public money as a gift to the Muslims. To avoid backlash from opponents of the project they named the building "Neighborhood Home". The mayor was delighted to receive a subsidy from the State.
The first official mosque in Bondy has opened its doors. For once the project was entirely funded with "Franco-French" private money. The only hitch was the green roof, forbidden by the blueprint. No problem, the mayor changed it.
For the construction of the great mosque of Strasbourg funding came from different sources:
- 423,874 euros from the Regional Council of Alsace
- 506,000 euros from the Department of Bas-Rhin
- 610,000 euros from the city of Strasbourg
The communist mayor of Montreuil gave a piece of land 1700 square meters to an association for 1 symbolic euro. Legal proceedings to have this annulled have been initiated.
On March 27, 2006, the municipal council of Créteil adopted its budget. The elected officials of the MNR Party (National Republican Movement, headed by Bruno Mégret) were intrigued by an allotment of 1 million euros for the UAMC (Union of Muslim Associations of Créteil). The UAMC is a SCI(1), not an association, and subsidies are illegal.
The municipal council of Nantes granted a 99-year lease for the construction of a mosque on an 800 square meter lot for 3300 euros a year. During the vote 52 were for it, 13 abstained.
In Blagnac, the mayor graciously had a mosque installed on the first floor of a day-care center (good for an early indoctrination)!
In Poitiers, such a symbolic city for the French, 150,000 euros were granted to a Muslim association for the purchase of a house with garden. In case anyone's interested, the same city grants 164,000 euros for the upkeep of the churches (which are, theoretically anyway, a State expense).
etc, etc, etc.........
(1) SCI stands for "Société Civile Immobilière" (roughly translated as Civic Real Estate Firm - I don't know exactly what it is, but if it's a private realtor, it stands to reason that subsidies from the State would be illegal.)
The top photo is the great mosque of Strasbourg.
The third image is the projected mosque at Vénissieux
The other two are self-explanatory. There are more photos at the above-named website.
posted by tiberge @ 7:51 PM
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3 Comments:
I have been following the debate around/against islamization of France very loosly. But I wonder what is behind this (new?) acute protectionist outcry. Is it that the French government has become more accomodating to muslims after 911 and is it France's way of antagonizing Americans? Or is it that the French are worried of the uprising of muslim fanaticism in France and they are pre-empting it?
There is presently a common debate happening in Quebec, about accomodation raisonable!
I personally think people should be allowed to do what they want within the boundaries of their home, but outside, they have to abide by the common law of the society.
Now I don't think teh French are right in pulling headscarves off of women's head. It just radicalizes them. But I also don't think teh French need to pay for Moslim Mosques!
@ n
I could spend hours answering your question. I'll be as brief as I can.
First, I'm not sure what you mean by "acute protectionist outcry". If you mean resistance to the Islamization of the country, it is nothing new, because massive immigration has been going on since 1974 when the immigration laws were changed to allow family reunification. Since then, people knowledgeable about Islam have been warning about the consequences of having millions of Muslims who cannot be assimilated into French society living on French territory and infiltrating the institutions of the country.
France has been accomodating them for decades. They have had an Arab policy that some call "Eurabia" i.e., a policy whose goal is to Arabize Europe in order for this new Arabized Europe to be a "counterweight" to the great power of the United States. All of this started long before 9/11. But 9/11 aroused extreme anti-American feelings among the French Left elite: Socialists, Communists and Chirac's party the UMP, which though technically Right is ideologically closer to the Left.
Some of it may well have been to antagonize Americans, but when the November 2005 riots broke out, the French had some egg on their face. However the French prime minister at the time insisted that the riots were just letting off steam, a type of horesplay in which no one was killed, while America's racial riots resulted in many deaths. But eyewitness accounts and photos of the French riots show a different story.
The French who love their country and their region and their language and their culture are beginning to feel like an endangered species and are rising up - at least on the Internet! How this will translate into political change remains to be seen.
As for the headscarves, they are seen not just as a religious symbol but as a defiance to the laws of the Republic. The law separating Church and State (1905) was meant only for Catholicism. It did not forsee a situation like this where a conquering ideology like Islam would implant itself on French soil and make a mockery of French laws. Making the girls remove their scarves is too little too late. You're right - it does radicalize them. But for them to leave the scarves on is a violation of the French law, and a potential disruptive element in a classroom. I have taught in an American inner-city. It is very difficult to teach children from different cultures. There are enough hardships when the class is homogenous. Multiculti classes are just about impossible to teach, because there is no dominating culture allowed.
I don't quite understand "accomodation raisonable" - what is reasonable to French Canadians may not be reasonable to Muslims.
@n
"Ipersonally think people should be allowed to do what they want within the boundaries of their home, but outside, they have to abide by the common lauw of the society"....This passage shows that you have not quite grasped the nature of Islam : it is NOT only a religion, it is also a political institution that wants to rule people's lives , either physical (clothes), intellectual (censorship of "decadent" artists or writers), sexual (of course!) ; don't be mistaken : there CANNOT be any such thing as "moderate Islam" ; if we don't stop them, they will rule us ; it is really a matter of life and death ; being "raisonable" won't help us, it will only make the invaders feel safe and victorious.
Can you explain "accomodation raisonable" ? I don't understand it better than Tiberge.
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