November 11 - London and Paris

Before the memory of November 11, 2010 evaporates completely, I wanted to report briefly on the ceremonies that took place in London and at the Great Mosque of Paris.

In London, the commemoration in honor of British soldiers, including those who died in Afghanistan, was countered by violent (at least verbally) demonstrations by a Muslim group called MAC - Muslims Against Crusades. The Daily Mail has a substantial report on the event, with many photos and comments. The photo above shows a scene that must have caused many a stiff upper lip to want to reach for a gun. Would such a thing have been allowed in years past? The article begins:

He was 3ft tall in his shiny black shoes and he wore his great-uncle’s medals with pride as he stood to attention in the rain.

Jonny Osborne, seven, symbolised the face of a new generation yesterday as he marched shoulder to shoulder with servicemen and women to honour those killed by war.

But three miles across London from the Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, another face of Britain was on display. It was contorted with hatred, poisoned by politics, and fuelled by flames from a giant, burning poppy.

Read more.

Meanwhile in Paris, the French Minister of Defense Hervé Morin honored the 100,000 Muslim soldiers who died for France in the two World Wars. Le Figaro reports:

(...) During a homage at the Great Mosque of Paris, Hervé Morin stressed that "the diversity of French society was an asset to be exploited." Two plaques - one in French, one in Arabic - were unveiled, in honor of the thousands of riflemen, "goumiers" and "spahis" (note: both words designate North African or black soldiers under French authority. The "spahis" were Algerian) who died in French uniform.

"The diversity of French society, particularly on the global level, is an opportunity and an asset that we must exploit. With history to back us, we can raise perspectives for the future," the minister emphasized. "That we do this, each in his own way, at sites that have major symbolic and historical significance, such as the Great Mosque, is important."

In all, some 70,000 Muslim soldiers died for France or went missing between 1914 and 1918, and more than 16,600 from North Africa alone between 1940 and 1945, according to estimates of the French ministry. The grand mufti of the Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, pointed to the "highly symbolic" aspect of the homage to Muslim soldiers. The Great Mosque of Paris was built between 1922 and 1926 in honor of the Muslims who died for France in WWI, at the request of their officers (...)

Note: This is not the first time I have posted on homages to Muslim soldiers who died for France.

The following paragraphs are taken from a lengthy post I did in June 2010 on various aspects of laïcité (Church/State separation) and the building of the Great Mosque of Paris:

And yet... On July 16, 1926, the Great Mosque of Paris, the first mosque to open in France, was inaugurated. By whom? I'll give you three guesses: Gaston Doumergue, president of the Radical-Socialist Republic and a member of the Grand Orient of France. This destroyer of priests, who would have choked from indignation if he had been asked to inaugurate a church, saw no reason why he should not represent the secular Republic at the opening of the first Muslim place of worship, where he gave a speech unencumbered by guilt feelings.

The Left showed for the first time its true conception of "laïcité": the enemy is not religion, but Catholicism - the religion of the dominant, arrogant and exploitative world. Whereas Islam, the religion of the colonized, of the poor countries, of immigrants, does not merit the same treatment.

So the Muslim soldiers could have been honored without the mosque. But even then, in 1926, the French authorities were willing to do favors for the Muslims. Favors they never would have done for the Catholic Church.

Four years ago, I posted on the memorial to Muslim soldiers who died at Verdun in WWI. The memorial was inaugurated in June 2006 when Jacques Chirac was still president. Soon thereafter I posted the following denunciation of the memorial from a contributor to a now-defunct Google group called Via-Resistancia:

This truly very sad day will witness the memory of the valiant French soldiers sullied and mocked by this abject inauguration of a "memorial to Muslims" who supposedly died for France...not just because classifying these dead according to their religion is shabby on the part of a Republic that still dares to call itself "secular", which it hasn't been since the plans of Chevènement were implemented by the team of Chirac-Sarkozy, plans that included elevating the CFCM to the level of a religious power group and HALDE to the level of political police, but to speak of "Muslims who died for France" is a profound historical lie.

That there was a marginal number of colonized Muslims who were forced to fight in the European wars that France, a colonial empire, was involved in, goes without saying, but to turn that into a generalization is to knowingly lie, to manipulate the historical facts for convenient propaganda purposes.

...the lie surrounding this memorial was revealed by the Minister of Veterans (Hamlaoui Mekachera) himself, who correctly designated it as a "homage to all the combatants, religious or not, fallen on the field of honor during the Great War". Still it was dedicated to the native riflemen of North Africa, most of whom were not even Muslims!

But, the fact remains, that in this era of Islamization of Europe and of the active collaboration of our elite with the Muslim occupier, Jacques Chirac - who has claimed that Europe has Muslim roots - and the media (worthy successors to Radio Paris), could not let the opportunity slip by without adding another layer of allegiance to our new masters. Especially since the Meskine affair has tarnished somewhat the beautiful Trojan horse image of a "moderate Islam in France"...

There is a lot more to say about Veteran's Day, but I'll stop here. The main point is obvious - French national holidays are now days of repentance for the crime of being French. And while the law of 1905 strictly separated the Catholic Church from the State, that same State has no problem honoring, praising and building memorials to foreigners by virtue of their religion.