The Minister of Mixed Marriages

French Minister of Immigration and National Identity, Eric Besson, divorced with three children, will marry his Tunisian companion, Yasmine Tordjman, 23. The question everyone is asking: Will he convert to Islam?

François Desouche links to the article in Le Parisien:

After some delays his decision has been made. Eric Besson, 52, Minister of Immigration and National Identity will marry Yasmine Tordjman, the 23-year-old Tunisian girl who has been his companion since his divorce from Sylvie Brunel in June 2009. The marriage is to take place in Paris on September 16, probably in the offices of the mayor of the 7th arrondissement. A few days ago, Eric Besson and his companion traveled to Tunisia, on the occasion of the marriage of the granddaughter of President Ben Ali. The couple plans to spend part of their summer vacation in Tangiers, Morocco.

Reminders: Former Minister of Justice Rachida Dati is mayor of the 7th arrondissement. It is rumored she will perform the ceremony. Rachida Dati, a Muslim woman, who recently gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, whose father is still unknown (at least his name has not been revealed by the press), will marry a 23-year-old Muslim woman to a man 29 years her senior. Since he is not (yet) a Muslim, and since Muslim girls are forbidden to marry outside their faith, we are waiting with bated breath to see how these loose ends are tied. Obviously, Muslim women who work their way into the upper echelons of French government have certain privileges.

The issue of his conversion to Islam is still up in the air. If you do a Google on the topic, you will find some saying that he will not convert, others saying that he will. The following report from Islam en France, a blog connected to the news source 20 Minutes, claims that he will. It also uses as its source Le Parisien, and gives the same basic information as above, except for the following:

The happy bride is Yasmine Tordjman, 23, a student in Paris, and the great granddaughter of Madame Wassila Bourguiba, the wife of the former Tunisian president, Habib Bourguiba. Mr. Besson has promised his in-laws that he will convert to Islam as the religion requires.

The story of his possible conversion goes back a few months. Sometime back in February of this year, a website called Bakchich revealed that the French Minister of Immigration and National Identity would be converting to Islam as required by the Muslim religion, upon which Bakchich was sued by Besson for violation of his private life. On February 12, the lawyers faced off before the judge and on February 26 the Paris Tribunal deemed that the lawsuit had no foundation. The case was dismissed.

More reminders: It was Eric Besson who, back in January, while visiting the project of La Courneuve, said: "France is not a people, or a language or a territory or a religion, but a conglomeration of peoples who want to live together..." Besson, born in Morocco to a mother who was part Arab, raised as a Christian, was Nicolas Sarkozy's unerringly appropriate choice to head the Ministry of Immigration. Sarkozy never misses a chance to show his disdain for the traditions of France, all the while proclaiming himself to "have been elected to defend French national identity." (Source: François Desouche)

Eric Besson's comments in January came in the midst of a so-called national debate on French identity, a largely unsuccessful attempt to fool the French into thinking their opinion counted for something.

In an article dating from November 2009, Eric Besson spoke about mixed marriages:

Besson said that he felt that mixed marriages represented an "enrichment for our society" but that defending them had to include a fight against "gray" marriages and "white" marriages.

Note: A "gray" marriage is between a foreigner and a French person who is abused. A "white" marriage is a marriage of convenience agreed upon by both parties.

I'm not sure what is meant by "abused". Here, it seems to mean that the French person is somehow forced into marriage with the foreigner.

Remember that the "French person" may not necessarily be an ethnic Frenchman or Frenchwoman, but a Maghrebin with a French passport. We never really know who is who when we read racial and ethnic statistics.

Besson pointed out that 80% of annulments involve mixed marriages. According to Besson, 13% of the children born in France are of mixed couples, compared to 6% ten years ago.

Today, marriage is the principal "source" of immigration in France. With 50,000 authorizations for long stays issued each year to those who use marriage as their reason for emigrating, that represents double the number of visas granted for professional reasons. Furthermore, 30,000 of the 100,000 naturalizations granted in 2007 were justified on grounds of marriage.

Below, Eric Besson with his ex, Sylvie Brunel, a successful writer, horsewoman, university professor and worker for Doctors Without Borders, who has also written a tell-all book about her marriage.

Photo from Gala.

Wilders' Plea to Muslims

You may be interested in reading Geert Wilders' description of his early trip to Egypt, what he saw there, and what he learned. Atlas Shrugs has the article. The following is an excerpt:

There are people who say that I hate Muslims. I do not hate Muslims. It saddens me how Islam has robbed them of their dignity.What Islam does to Muslims is visible in the way they treat their daughters. On March 11, 2002, fifteen Saudi schoolgirls died as they attempted to flee from their school in the holy city of Mecca. A fire had set the building ablaze. The girls ran to the school gates but these were locked. The keys were in the possession of a male guard, who refused to open the gates because the girls were not wearing the correct Islamic dress imposed on women by Saudi law: face veils and overgarments.

The “indecently” dressed girls frantically tried to save their young lives. The Saudi police beat them back into the burning building. Officers of the Mutaween, the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” as the Police are known in Saudi Arabia, also beat passers-by and firemen who tried to help the girls. “It is sinful to approach them,” the policemen warned bystanders. It is not only sinful, it is also a criminal offence.

Girls are not valued highly in Islam; the Koran says that the birth of a daughter makes a father’s “face darken and he is filled with gloom” (sura 43:15). Nevertheless, the incident at the Mecca school drew angry reactions. Islam is inhumane; but Muslims are humans, hence capable of Love – that powerful force which Muhammad despised.

A French version is posted at Bivouac-Id.

Poitiers Revised

Most Frenchmen with patriotic feelings point to the Battle of Poitiers as a defining moment in the history of France and of Europe. For it was in 732, somewhere near Poitiers (the exact location is disputed), that the Frankish hero Charles Martel defeated the Arab army, and paved the way for the continued growth and Christianization of France.

According to English Wikipedia, 19th century historians such as Gibbon accorded major importance to this battle:

Later Christian chroniclers and pre-20th century historians praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, characterizing the battle as the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe; according to modern military historian Victor Davis Hanson, "most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."

Modern historians, however, are divided:

Modern historians, by contrast, are divided over the battle's importance, and considerable disagreement exists as to whether or not the victory was responsible — as Gibbon and his generation of historians claimed, and which is echoed by many modern historians — for saving Christianity and halting the conquest of Europe by Islam. However, there is little dispute that the battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next century; most historians agree that "The establishment of Frankish power in western Europe shaped that continent's destiny and the Battle of Tours confirmed that power."

The following quote from Gibbon is in stark contrast to what we read today in books, newspapers, on the web, on television, and in our classrooms, where Islam is either extolled as a "religion of peace", or as a religion that has been "highjacked" by terrorists, or as a force preferable in any case to Christianity, or worse: as a reformable doctrine that can adapt to Western ways with our help. Gibbon felt otherwise:

"A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet."

Somewhere along the way, Western Europe (and the United States) softened towards Islam, and began rejecting Christianity, as if it were an alien body.

The site of the Battle of Poitiers, though uncertain, is accepted by many French historians as being the village of Moussais-la-Bataille, in the commune of Vouneuil-sur-Vienne, between the cities of Châtellerault and Poitiers. It was there that the Festival called "732, Moussais-la-Bataille" was held, on Sunday July 26, 2010, organized by the Office of Tourism of Vouneuil-sur-Vienne.

There is nothing unusual about any of that. It isn't until you look at the program and the events offered to the public, that you may begin to wonder, as did both Novopress and François Desouche if the Arabs didn't come out of the battle of Poitiers victorious:

Live performances, juggling, multi-ethnic oriental and medieval music (musique métissée).

Note: "Musique métissée" is a new term for me. Now even music intermarries!

Tour and Lectures.

Oriental and regional market.

Exhibits at the Arab World Institute. (!)

Camel rides. (!)

Reading of tales by the "Causette" Association.

Games for children.

What happened to Charles Martel? What happened to the victory for Christianity? One François Desouche reader suggests two more events:

Self-flagellation

Group conversion to Islam

Here are a few more comments:

- But this is a nightmare! Have they all gone mad, or what? What are they trying to prove? Shame on those who, in the name of mental decrepitude, are selling us to the invader. Charles Martel, don't worry. There are still enough Gaulois left to vindicate the honor of France.

- If you are curious enough to go there and look at the names and faces of the municipal staff, you will not find a single Mohammed or Khader. Just regular Frenchmen like us! Which means that this is the type of person, with his boot-licking imbecilic radical chic initiatives, who is the worst of the gravediggers of the France we love.

- They left Poitiers in 732. They returned to Roissy in a 747.

- Why not have workshops and courses for beginners in beating, stoning, gang raping, etc... All these riches that Charles Martel wasn't able to see!

- They have a lot of nerve. I'd like to go strolling around one day in mecca with a pig on a leash.

Apparently revisionism concerning the Battle of Poitiers has been going on for some time. French Wikipedia quotes French writer Anatole France:

"The most fatal day in the History of France" was "the day of the Battle of Poitiers, when, in 732, Arab science, art and civilization withdrew before the Frankish barbarity."

What Wikipedia does not tell you (except in the footnote) is that Anatole France himself did not say it, rather one of his characters in the novel La Vie en Fleur says it in a teasing way. The character is Monsieur Dubois, and the title of the chapter containing the quote is "Monsieur Dubois Teases".

It is to be hoped that people who read this page of Wikipedia also read the footnote.

Wikipedia also cites Adolph Hitler who is supposed to have declared to Martin Bormann:

"If Charles Martel had been beaten at Poitiers, the world would have had a different face. Since the world was already condemned to the Jewish influence (and its by-product, Christianity, is such an insipid thing!), it would have been better if Islam had won. This religion rewards heroism, promises warriors joys in seventh heaven... Driven by a similar spirit, the Germans would have conquered the world. They were prevented from doing so by Christianity."

Note: Here we have a partial explanation for Hitler's rage against the Jews - they were responsible for Christianity, and Germany would have been better off with its pre-Christian pagan religions. The hatred of Christianity led him to exterminate its source. This is not very different from what Islam would do if it could - first, annihilate the Jews, then Christianity. Neo-pagan writers also espouse this view. Sigmund Freud too believed that the hatred of Christianity was the driving force behind Hitler's genocidal frenzy.

Then Wikipedia moves on to modern historians:

The importance of the battle is, even in our own time, so great in the imaginations of European and Arab peoples, that one historian goes so far as to deny it ever happened, attributing its invention to French chroniclers of the Late Middle Ages, who were trying to mask the defeat of Nouaillé (1356).

Note: Nouaillé refers to the other Battle of Poitiers in 1356, during the Hundred Years War, when the King of France was taken prisoner of the English.

Note too that the historian who denies that the battle ever took place is Nas E. Boutammina, a Muslim writer, whose book "La Bataille de Poitiers n'a jamais eu lieu" (The battle of Poitiers never happened) was published in Beirut in 2006.

Wikipedia concludes:

According to historians Françoise Micheau and Philippe Sénac: "Many voices have been raised in an attempt to put the battle in its proper place. To no avail, because, the event has become a symbol and has been passed on to posterity along with the hero Charles Martel. It belongs to that common ideological fund that holds that the French nation, Christian civilization, and European identity are founded on a staging of the clash of civilizations and the exclusion of the Other."

Note: The above quote is probably not translated well. But I had difficulty with their notion that the European ideological heritage can only perceive European identity in terms of a "staging" ("mise en scène") of the clash of civilizations. The authors seem to be saying that the only way Europeans can have a sense of identity is through re-enacting an imagined clash of civilizations and through the exclusion of the "Other". The "staging" may refer to wars, controversies over immigration, choice of textbooks, and feelings of national and religious pride, etc... anything that makes Europeans feel distinct from the "Other". If this is what they mean, it is only half the story - what about the "Other"? Doesn't the "Other" have the same need to feel distinct from the Europeans? Doesn't every civilization take particular pride in its accomplishments, waging wars offensively or defensively, patroling its borders, setting immigration quotas, in order to protect and preserve that which is distinctly their own?

Historian Suzanne Citron emphasizes the role of the battle of Poitiers in "the subconscious racist and anti-Arab impulses and in the illusion of the superiority of the white Catholic civilization."

Well, that's clear enough.

So we've come full circle, from a glorious battle won by a great Frankish hero to a minor event on the level of a fist fight, blown out of proportion by the fertile imagination of myth-indoctrinated racist anti-Arab people, i.e., the French.

Personally, I'll take Gibbon over Madame Citron.

FYI, there is a post on the Battle of Poitiers, dating from 2005, at the website of the Norwegian blogger Fjordman. He uses several old accounts from Arab chroniclers to show various points of view, and closes with the Chronicle of Saint Denis.

Illustration at top from Herodote.

Perhaps we shouldn't complain too much about camel rides in Poitiers. A quick Google will lead you to lots of information about camel riding all over the world. In 1942, camels were herded through the streets of New York. They're better looking than some of the two-legged creatures you are apt to see today on Fifth Avenue. Photo from Camelphotos.


Anyway, Poitiers now has at least two mosques. Review this post.

Russian Reactions to Grenoble

How did the Russian press view the rioting in Grenoble? With more honesty than much of the French press. And with no compunctions about calling the incidents by their true name - race riots. The following is an abridged version of an article posted at Suite 101. There is a warning that the article cannot be reproduced without permission from the author - Dimitri Vivodtzev, hence my decision to abridge:

Echo of Moscow is often considered in France to be the last free radio of Russia. But if France Info or Radio Monte-Carlo had published an article such as the one posted at the Echo website on July 19, they would have certainly received dozens of letters accusing them of being of the extreme-right.

The title alone would have created a furor:

"In the south-east of France, confrontations go on between African nationals and the local police."

Further down in the article:

" (...) Somebody is supposed to have heard the colored Frenchmen shout: 'down with the whites', but officially, the authorities do not use the term 'ethnic confrontations' to describe what happened."

Another Russian source, rbc.ru, wrote on July 18:

"In France, African nationals are again burning cars and shops." Then it speaks of "pogroms organized by gangs of immigrants." (...)

And on July 19, the famous Pravda published the following:

"The French suburbs are once again in flames. (...) The confrontations that took place recently between police and African and Middle Eastern nationals again remind the world of the problems linked to immigrants, who represent as much as 15% of the French population."

Pravda even analysed the "question of the suburbs":

"The events taking place this very moment in Grenoble show that the problem is not yet solved. And those who rule France are not to be envied. For if they increase the welfare subsidies of these immigrants who do not really want to work, that will mean a heavy burden for the taxpayer and would lead to a lowering in the quality of life for the majority of Frenchmen. And then, those who do work would be discontented. But if the rioters were to be severely punished, they would react with more and more acts of rebellion."

Even other websites more neutral in their position chose their language carefully:

"The confrontations between the police and the ethnic groups..." (regnum.ru)

"Confrontations between the police and immigrants are going on in Grenoble..." (gazeta.ru)

"Criminal ethnic groups" is even used by a Muslim website in Azerbaidjan (news.day.az)

The article closes with the observation that political correctness does not exist in Russia, a social reality that has led to conflicts with "human rights" advocates.

In this case, I'm definitely on Russia's side. Many French nationalists and sovereigntists, in particular those disenchanted with the United States, are looking to Russia as a kind of "big brother" ally. They are convinced that the Soviet past is dead, and that the future of France lies with the Russia that has been re-born, complete with its religion and its sense of national pride. How valid this position is I cannot say, but when you read an article like this one, you realize there may be some merit in it.

H/T - Yves Daoudal

In America, we do, however, have some among us who are not afraid of the truth.

Jared Taylor is a writer known primarily for his unabashedly realistic views on race. He is the editor of American Renaissance, and the author of numerous books and articles on race relations. Not surprisingly, he is hated by many and often accused of being a racist. In a recent interview he explains his positions with confidence and clarity. Here is just one excerpt:

- Describe the current state of race relations in America.

- JT: Race is, and always will be, a serious social fault line in this country. Relative peace is maintained because whites tolerate “affirmative action” and massive non-white immigration. They do this because they are browbeaten and bamboozled into thinking it is wrong for whites to act in their own interests. This will not always be the case, and race relations will get worse as more and more whites begin to resist dispossession.

- What are your thoughts about people who say, "race doesn't matter?"

- JT: They are fools. Race obviously matters. Ninety percent of the churches in the United States are at least 80 percent one race. Is that an accident? Residential segregation is not much different from patterns in the 1950s. Why is that? The NAACP, the Urban League, the Congressional Black Congress, the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and literally thousands of other groups and associations are based deliberately and specifically on race. Try telling their members race doesn’t matter.

It is almost exclusively white people who say race doesn’t matter, and this is because they are the only people who are required at least to pretend that it doesn’t matter. This, in turn, is because they are not allowed to have explicit racial interests of their own, and must deliberately close their eyes to the racial chauvinism of others lest they acknowledge this anti-white double standard.

Those interested can read the whole interview here.

H/T: VFR

The painting below is by Russian artist Isaak Levitan, known for his landscapes. View more at the Russian Art Gallery.

Sarko s'en va-t-en guerre

Last weekend the big news was Grenoble. I would like to spend this weekend updating that story, first with commentary from Agoravox:

A dispatch from AFP on July 21 announced: "A return to calm seemed evident in the district of La Villeneuve in Grenoble, subject recently to an eruption of violence. For the second consecutive night, no noteworthy incident was reported (...)

Six cars and one scooter were burned - "a perfectly normal night for this neighborhood", added a police spokesman.

Disgusting. Six cars and one scooter burned is, for our police, a "perfectly normal" night in some neighborhoods. Drive around, there's nothing going on... Everything is OK.

In France, citizens of the "second zone" (i.e., second class citizens) shouldn't complain if their car is burned during the night, it's a "normal" situation. Learn to live with it. If you move to La Villneuve, be advised that your car will most likely be torched one day. That's how it is. It's part of the contract.

The area is still very tense, as the graffiti discovered in a Grenoble suburb can attest: "a good cop is a dead cop", "one cop = one bullet". These words were on the walls of the building that houses the municipal police of Sassenage, in the department of Isère. The prefect Albert Dupuy decided to file a complaint... just before learning that he had been relieved of his duties by Nicolas Sarkozy.

The President, in fact, is replacing Albert Dupuy with Eric Le Douaron, a career police officer and current prefect of the department of the Meuse. His objective: to wage a veritable "war" against crime. A line we already heard... years ago... out of the mouth of the same Nicolas Sarkozy.

Le Monde, a paper not known for being critical of the government, has published an article that recapitulates some of the "wars" Sarkozy has been waging for eight years, both as Interior Minister and as President:

When he became Interior Minister he presented himself as a warrior. On June 27, 2002, addressing 2000 police officers he said:

"We must and we shall reverse the trend. We must and we shall bring down the crime rate. We will win the war against crime."

In October of the same year he visited a neighborhood of Strasbourg where cars had been burned, and announced forceful measures with supplementary police: "to seek out the criminals wherever they are, for we must wage war on them."

In February 2003, testifying before the Senate committee on illegal drugs, Sarkozy repeated:

"It is clear that when it comes to drug use among our citizens, we must prosecute a war against the dealers."

In July 2003, he also "declared war" against speeding truck drivers.

Once elected President, he enlarged his battlefield. In February 2008 he promised:

"Beginning tomorrow, we will wage a merciless war against drug trafficking and dealers, and I will assume complete responsibility for the conditions in which it is implemented and the monitoring of the results."

The following year, the battle goes on. While visiting Seine-Saint-Denis in March 2009, Sarkozy declared "war on violent gangs", promising that "the gangs will not be victorious over the Republic."

In September 2009, changing his territory, Nicolas Sarkozy declared his intention to wage a "merciless war against school dropouts."

But the mother of all wars, the war against crime, knows no truce. In a speech honoring Aurélie Fouquet, the policewoman killed in the line of duty in Villiers-sur-Marne, on May 26, 2010, the President repeated:

"France is engaged in a merciless war against crime."

A war that has lasted for eight years, and shows no signs of stopping.

The title of the post is based on a famous French children's song - Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre (Malbrough goes off to war). The tune is one we all know - For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.

At top, Sarkozy examines a weapon seized last November in the suburb of Bobigny.

The photo below shows the GIPN (Intervention Group of the National Police), a special unit of the French national police, created in 1972, that operates regionally and constitutes a highly skilled elite force, rigorously trained to deal with extreme violence and ready for action 24/7/365.

The GIPN and RAID (Seek, Assist, Intervene, Dissuade), another elite force, were both called in during the Grenoble violence.

Bastille Day Car Burnings

Before I leave the topic of Brice Hortefeux and car burnings, I must refer you to Charles Henry's article at Covenant Zone on the number of cars that were set on fire on July 14. Coming as it did just a day or two before the Grenoble riots, the story can now in retrospect be thought of as a comical prelude to bigger events.

One would have to conclude that Brice had not yet noticed the "spectacular" decline in crime, when he spoke of an "unhealthy tradition". Tradition?

Gendarmerie Attacked, Brice Spectacularly Optimistic

Just hours after the incidents in Grenoble, the following events occurred at the gendarmerie of Saint-Aignan in the department of Loir-et-Cher. This report is from LCI.TF1:

At first the prefecture of Loir-et-Cher had said that one hundred gendarmes were called in, but in the end, there were almost three hundred deployed Sunday night (July 18) at Saint-Aignan. The gendarmerie had been attacked that morning by gypsies protesting the killing by a gendarme of one of their members. According to a communiqué from the prefecture, the gendarmes will ensure the safety and the control of the zone, and will oppose any recurrence of violence.

The town of Saint-Aignan, 3,400 inhabitants, was awakened Sunday morning by a rare confrontation between gendarmes and gypsies. "About fifty people, some wearing hoods and armed with axes and bludgeons, attacked the headquarters of the highway patrol and the toll booths at Saint-Romain," explained the prefecture. "Then they went to Saint-Aignan where they committed more acts of vandalism, breaking windows, destroying shops, billboards, traffic lights, cutting down trees, and setting fire to two cars," the prefecture added, confirming the description given by the mayor of the town.

It was the death of a man late Friday night (July 16-17), killed by a gendarme at Thésée (Loir-et-Cher), during a police chase, that provoked the anger of the gypsy community.

There is more information at Le Parisien:

Five days after the death of Luigi Duquenet, the young gypsy killed by a gendarme, and the violence that ensued, four persons have been placed in custody. (...) About seventy gendarmes were mobilized to find and arrest the alleged perpetrators of the violence committed on Sunday morning in the village of Saint-Aignan. Four suspects are being held in Blois, one for making death threats to the gendarmes, the others for destroying property. (...)

The prosecutor of Blois, Dominique Puechmaille is opening two separate inquiries. The first will determine the circumstances in which the gendarme opened fire and killed the young man, 22. The second will follow the trail of the young man before his death, the "gang robbery" of 20 euros at an ATM machine, which caused the gendarmes to intervene, the refusal to "comply" and above all the "attempted homicide of three gendarmes". "The car deliberately drove towards the gendarmes who had to get out of its way and let it pass," affirmed the prosecutor.

Nicolas Sarkozy has been called a racist for making certain remarks about the behavior of gypsies:

In response to the events in Saint-Aignan, Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Wednesday that he was calling a meeting at Elysée Palace next week in order to examine the situation of the gypsies and the Roms throughout France and to decide whether or not to "expel all illegal settlements."

His statements aroused the anger of human rights organizations and associations of gypsies, all of whom accused him of stigmatizing the gypsies and of trying to deflect attention from the Bettancourt-Woerth scandal.

Note: You can read about this corruption scandal at the NYT, or any one of a number of English-language sites. Do a Google on "Bettencourt scandal in France." The Times article whets one's appetite with these opening lines:

"An aging heiress. An angry daughter. A society photographer. A renegade butler and an embittered accountant. Secret tapes. A famous company with a nasty past and long political connections. An unpopular president and a cabinet minister with a taste for money, and tales of illegal cash donations in envelopes. This romantic stew is known as the “Bettencourt affair,” after the elderly heiress of the L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, 87."

Back to Le Parisien:

Sarkozy also proclaimed his desire to "wage" a "veritable war" on criminality, in response to the urban violence in Grenoble, while the Left pointed to the "patent failure" of his policy on crime, both as president and as interior minister.

The League of Human Rights (LDH) accused the president of making the Roms and gypsies into scape goats and of turning public opinion against easy targets. Coralie Guillot, of the Parada Association, that works with the Roms of Seine-Saint-Denis, claims that the decisions have already been made, and cites the numerous expulsions from the department of Ile-de-France. Olivier Peyroux of the Hors la rue Association, that deals with nomadic youth, accused Sarkozy of associating Roms and gypsies with criminality.

As usual, Brice Hortefeux arrived on the scene the next day. Both Le Post and François Desouche have published an audio track of the remarks he made at Saint-Aignan, but I cannot get it to work for me. Here is what he is supposed to have said:

"We have recorded spectacular results in the fight against crime. All indicators of the fight against crime are going down. A year ago, crime was rising slightly, today it is clearly going down. This is true for attacks against personal belongings, for burglaries, and for the fight against trafficking and drugs. As for attacks against people, which was the trouble spot, we have broken the upward spiral."

"This is only a start, we will persevere methodically, with determination and obstinacy. And the only mission that the President of the Republic has confided (to me) is plain and clear - to ensure the protection of our citizens."

According to Causeur, he may have been advised to modify his language, since on July 21, on Europe 1 Radio, he declared:

"In the fight that we are waging to ensure public safety, we obtain results that are sometimes spectacular. We observe a decrease in the number of thefts, burglaries, scams..."

Here is an eyewitness (well, almost) account of the incident from a lucky American expat living in the Loire Valley.

Some readers at Bivouac-Id reproach Sarkozy for his 'tough cop" position in this case. Their feeling is that he should not expend energy expelling Roms, who do not constitute a major threat to France, but rather deal with the Muslims, who do. This is a valid complaint, and completely in keeping with Sarkozy's hollow braggadocio. He has been known to expel a few Chinese girls who were out of line in some way, a few Afghans, etc... But never to expel, en masse, the Muslim invaders - for obvious reasons - he's the one who let them in in the first place!

The painting below by Van Gogh, A Gypsy Camp near Arles (1888), though not directly related to the post, was too good to pass up. The painting resides in the Orsay Museum in Paris.

Grenoble - Three Nights of Violence

It was another wild weekend in France, this time with Grenoble as the center of attention. Eruptions of violence occurred following the shooting by the police, who were acting in self defense, of a repeat offender named Karim Boudouda, age 27. Boudouda and an accomplice led the police on a wild chase after they robbed the casino at Uriage-les-Bains, near Grenoble. However, the rioting was set off when an imam recited a prayer for the dead man before fifty young people who had gathered in a park.

There are countless websites that have this story, with more or less the same facts. However, one reader points out that Le Figaro toned down its original article.

The following is based primarily on the report in Le Point. The language used in the article is cautious, to the point of being tediously unenlightening:

Demonstrators and police exchanged gunshots, cars and businesses burned: violent incidents erupted during the night of July 16-17, in Grenoble, after the death, the night before, of an armed robber who was killed in a confrontation with the police. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux arrived Saturday afternoon in La Villeneuve, the working class neighborhood in Grenoble that was shaken by the violence.

At around 2:30 a.m. a man demonstrating along with about forty others took out a hand gun and shot at the riot police who had been mobilized during the night in La Villeneuve, where the robber resided. The police opened fire to disperse the crowd and "ensure their safety". Between 50 and 60 cars were burnt, and two youths, ages 17 and 18, were arrested during the night. In addition, "construction equipment" and two businesses were also burnt.

It was after an imam recited a prayer for the dead man, before a group of fifty youths who had gathered in a park, that the situation degenerated. Small groups of vandals using baseball bats smashed bus stops and a trolley car, tear gas bombs were thrown, and several fires, notably in a garage, a technical center and a gym were reported by AFP.

The victim, Karim Boudouda, 27, had already been convicted three times for armed robbery. He was killed in a police chase when he fled after robbing the casino of Uriage-les-Bains, near Grenoble. With his accomplice - still at large - he held the casino employee at gunpoint and demanded the contents of the cash register. The police chase ended in La Villeneuve. "The criminals stopped their car. They opened fire at least three times on the officers," declared the D.A. of Grenoble, Jean Philippe. "The police of the anti-crime brigade (BAC) then responded," hitting Karim Boudouda in the head, Jean Philippe added, citing "self defense", a version denied by the youths of La Villeneuve, who are crying hatred and vengeance towards the police. The police recovered "a portion", possibly "the totality of the loot", between 20,000 and 40,000 euros, in a sack in the back of the criminals' car.

As I said, the French reports are not terribly interesting. Read instead an article posted by a British blogger named Durotrigan, who was kind enough to send me this link to his website.

Here is an excerpt from his article, in which he is critical of the Telegraph's politically correct reporting:

The Telegraph avoids mentioning the faith background of the perpetrators and their ethnicity, but the people conducting this violence, as everyone knows, are not French ‘youths’: they are Muslim immigrants or those descended from the Muslim immigrant population. It is probable that this outburst of violence in Grenoble was also a sign of discontent connected to the National Assembly’s decision this week to ban various types of Islamic veils such as the burqa and niqab, but we won’t see mainstream media outlets joining the dots to reveal an all-too apparent and obvious picture of seething Islamist resentment in France.

Prior to Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as President, many amongst the French electorate had been given the impression that he would deal with such rioters in a suitably condign fashion, having referred to those who participated in the 2005 riots as “canailles” and “racailles”, but he has not. Moreover, he has shown considerable accommodation towards Islam, which is not something that ordinary French voters would desire, particularly those who have the misfortune to live cheek by jowl with Muslim populations. (...)

If you read Durotrigan's home page you will find much of interest, including a summary of the French National Assembly's decision to ban the burqa.

The most striking comments of all, come from the rioters who unleashed the violence on the night of July 16-17. They are quoted at François Desouche who uses LCI.TF1 as the source:

"It's Beirut. I swear, it's Beirut!" exclaimed a resident of La Villeneuve as screeching sirens of police cars whizzed by. Above the buildings, in the nocturnal sky, a helicopter of the gendarmerie passed, equipped with projectors and an infrared light to film the crowds. Riot police attempted to encircle small groups of youths who kept getting away, running around and smashing everything in their path. About fifteen of them, some with their faces masked by white T-shirts, smashed bus stops with baseball bats. A policeman deployed in La Villeneuve confirmed that hatred of the police had been expressed by several neighborhood youths:

"The youths told me: You killed one of ours. At any rate, you are a dirty race, we will kill you too. We will shoot at everything that is European."

The residents of all ages came out into the street to watch the scenes of violence, and to express their anger. As the riot police passed by, an older woman cried out: "Go back home!" A young woman in a blue djellaba, who came out into the street late at night while the police were shooting rubber bullets into the air to disperse the crowds accused: "Cops! When you need them, they are never there, zero. And when you don't need them, they come. All of this is because of them." A woman in her thirties, wearing the full veil, who came out to see if her car was burning, added: "All the mothers came and saw the body on the ground. What does all of this mean? The children are shocked. Cops are dogs." A group of people in their sixties lamented: "Young people are acting crazy. They have nothing in their heads. There must not be another death. All of this serves no purpose."

The rest of the article deals with the refusal of the residents to accept the death of this "child of the neighborhood" as being the result of self defense on the part of the police. "They let him die on the ground. They left his body on the street instead of taking him away." "Blood was coming out of his head. He wasn't wearing a helmet. Surely the cops removed it."

The article concludes with a discussion of the increased violence in the region, and the 20% reduction in the number of police as the number of homicides increased. Police unions, concerned because heavily armed criminals no longer hesitate to shoot at police, cite the killing of a policeman in Villiers-sur-Marne last May 20.



There are now reports of a second night of "unrest" in Grenoble. Again, Le Point reports:

Police deployed in the district of Grenoble that was the scene of urban violence on July 16-17 were shot at again during the night of July 17-18. Four suspected gunmen were arrested. (...)

In all, twenty persons have been arrested since the violence began on Friday: besides the four suspects, eleven persons were arrested Saturday night, some of them in possession of knives. Five others had been arrested on Friday night. (...) July 17-18 is nonetheless considered to have been much calmer than the night before, with fifteen cars burnt, compared to sixty the previous night.

Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux paid a visit on Saturday to Grenoble saying he was determined to restore order "by all possible means". An important number of police (more than 300 from two units of the CRS riot police) will be on duty until Wednesday morning. (...) These forces had been engaged on Saturday night after the police were shot at near a shopping center, but the gunman managed to get away. (...)

Saliya Boudouda, the mother of the casino robber killed during a police chase on the night of July 15-16, called for "calm" on Sunday. And she announced her intention to file a suit in order to clarify the circumstances of the death of her son, a three-time offender. "The cops acted crazy. I'm going to see the D.A. and file a suit." So far, the IGPN (General Inspection of the National Police) has determined that the officers who killed Karim Boudouda acted in self defense, since he opened fire on them after a chase.

Besides the links above, there are videos at Bivouac-Id.

Rioting in Grenoble

This event caught me unawares. While I do some research, you can consult Atlas Shrugs. Pamela Geller has the story. French readers can check the videos and reports at François Desouche.

Atlas Shrugs

François Desouche

For French History Buffs

I saw that my article on Vendée was linked at a website called Le Fleur de Lys too. I checked to see what it was about, and found a most interesting site administered by a committed monarchist and Catholic, named Brantigny. He has a home page full of interesting topics, including the story of the key to the Bastille and an update on the Roman Polanski case.

In the left margin of his site is this "prayer of the Franks", an "official prayer of the Scouts of France":

Here is a rather hastily done translation:

God, almighty and eternal,
Who established the empire of the Franks to be in this world
The instrument of your divine will,
The sword and the shield of your Holy Church,
We pray that you protect, forever and everywhere, with your celestial light
The supplicant sons of the Franks,
So that that may see what must be done to fulfill your reign in this world,
And in order to accomplish what they have seen,
That they may be filled with charity, strength and perseverance.

Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Brantigny also links to historical novelist Catherine Delors' website, where she has posted two articles about the storming of the Bastille. The first entitled What Really Happened on Bastille Day contains this description:

The situation becomes very confused after the fall of the fortress. Over 100 insurgents have been killed, scores wounded. The crowd is turning into a howling mob. Launay, once on the street, is massacred along with the garrison. So is soon afterwards the Jacques de Flesselles, Provost of the Merchants. Accused of collusion with the foreign troops, he is shot dead. His head, and that of Launay are cut off and paraded at the end of pikes.

Paris would never again have a Provost of the Merchants. The next day, the first Mayor of the city is chosen, a National Guard is formed, headed by the Marquis de Lafayette, and tricolor flags and cockades make their first appearances in the history of France.

This was not a riot as Paris had known so many times before. The fall of the Bastille signaled the beginning of radical change.

Her second article deals with the aftermath of July 14, 1789 and contains this passage:

Within days, the now harmless Bastille became a tourist attraction. Parisians flocked to the former prison, turned into an improvised museum of horrors. They saw dungeons, below river level, that were permanently flooded, rusted torture instruments, human bones strewn upon rotting straw. Madame Tussaud, in her Memoirs, recounts her own harrowing visit there. Perhaps she got there ideas she would reuse later with great acumen…

But the demolition of the fortress had been decided. Outside its once formidable walls, little temporary cafés, sheltered under striped tents, sprang up in the summer heat. The old stones were being sold for construction or turned into all sorts of souvenirs.

History buffs, and those especially interested in France, the Royal Family, the Revolution, Napoleon, and the 18th century, should check out her website. I was struck by the description of the execution of Marie-Antoinette (illustration at top), of which this is an excerpt:

7:00 AM: Rosalie Lamorlière, a young servant who has been attending to the former Queen, offers to bring her some food. “I do not need anything anymore,” responds Marie-Antoinette. “All is over for me.” Upon Rosalie’s insistence, Marie-Antoinette accepts a bowl of bouillon, but she can only swallow a few spoonfulls.

She is informed that she is not to wear her black dress to her execution. She puts on her only other remaining garment: a white cotton dress, with a black petticoat, and a white cap adorned with black ribbon. She has been bleeding profusely (she is apparently suffering from a uterine fibroma, or possibly some more serious condition) and wishes to change her shirt. She must do so, only shielded by Rosalie, in the presence of the gendarme officer who has replaced Lieutenant de Busne (the latter has been briefly arrested for showing her too much respect.) Rosalie also cuts Marie-Antoinette’s hair short on the neck. In this fashion the executioner does not have to do it himself to facilitate the operation of the guillotine.

Those interested in French history should find much to enjoy at these two sites.

A Letter to Nicolas Sarkozy

Here is a letter dated July 5, 2010, from Brigitte Bardot to Nicolas Sarkozy:

Mr. President,

You and your ministers, as useless as you are cowardly, almost to the point of dishonesty and ridiculousness, are not succeeding and will never succeed in satisfying the French population who elected you in 2007, believing firmly in your promises, which you have not kept!

I am proposing that you bring urgent and serious help to the animals who are being treated in a barbarous, inhumane, scandalous and unworthy manner in this France of the 21st century.

Every president leaves behind traces of his term in power. Yours, which seems to be of a troubling negativity and mediocrity, could become the first to give to the weakest of the weak, to those exterminated amidst general indifference, a definitive and irreversible betterment that would set an unforgettable example to the world.

I leave you to reflect in your soul and your conscience, assuming you have them!

Brigitte Bardot

Vendée - 217 Years Later

An interesting article in Le Figaro describes the work of the archeologists and historians of INRAP (National Institute of Preventive Archeological Research) as they unearth the graves of the victims of the 1793 battle of Le Mans, in the department of Sarthe. The remains were found on the site that is to become the future Jacobin cultural center:

(...) It is the first time that excavations have been done of the mass graves of the Vendean War, as if there was a fear of arousing the ghosts of the past. There has always been a lot of reticence in our country regarding this episode in which the soldiers of the Republic confronted the insurgents of Western France, better known as the "Vendéens" (Vendeans or people of Vendée). For a longtime, history text books and the "national story" have erased or disguised this civil war that was every bit as ferocious as those that are tearing apart some countries even today.

On December 12 and 13, 1793, the battle of Le Mans was a veritable massacre. The republican army, having made a surprise appearance in order to finish once and for all with the insurrection, took no prisoners. Starving and sick, the bulk of the Vendean population, half of which consisted of women, old people and children, had taken refuge in Le Mans in the hope of finding food and medical supplies. According to estimates between 2000 and 5000 persons were killed.

Six of the nine uncovered grave sites have been thoroughly examined. They only represent some of the victims, since they contain in all two hundred skeletons. The others are buried outside of the limits of the dig. A number of individuals bear the traces of very severe wounds on the skull, arm bones or lower members, inflicted by weapons other than firearms. "Some of the wounds show signs of great violence, of unrelenting fury," declares Elodie Cabot, an anthropologist at INRAP. Women and boys aged 12-13 (child-soldiers) were among the victims, as was a three-year-old child. Several people had been executed by bullets. (...)

French readers might want to consult the INRAP article linked at Le Figaro.


Catholic writer Bernard Antony weighs in on this recent archeological effort, and views it in the context of the need to repair the damage done to the French nation by the government's 200-year silence and by the constant antagonism this has created among Frenchmen in conflict with one another. He cites Russia as an example to follow:

So 217 years had to pass before the first excavations at Le Mans of the mass graves from the Vendean War were undertaken.

This, it seems, will allow us to see lifted, oh so timidly, a small corner of the immense and heavy veil of amnesia that, for over two centuries, has been covering and hiding the truth about what the French Revolution was. But this veil must not be lowered again. It must be lifted entirely for the honor of France, her memory, her continuity and for civil peace among Frenchmen.

For it is the congenital flaw of our republican system to have been founded on the assassination of the King of France and his family and on an exterminating civil war. In addition, the French Revolution, by organizing the all-powerful State around a dialectic between the State and the individual, thus dissolving away all other social bonds, served as the ideological model of the two totalitarian monsters of the 20th century - Communism and Nazism.

Both Lenin and Hitler praised their Jacobin filiation. From the Jacobin sans-culottes came the Red Guard and the SS. The red and black ideologies of extermination justified their genocides with arguments similar to those used by the Convention to justify the genocide in Vendée. And the Jacobin ideology continues to inspire the subversion of the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity into a totalitarian individualism that destroys the natural communities, beginning with the family, and that confiscates the fundamental freedom of education of children by their parents.

Less than twenty years after the end of the USSR, the Russian State, even though in some ways a continuation of the Soviet system, honored itself by repenting for the assassination of the Tsar and his family, and by replacing Russia in its historical and religious continuity.

France is in need of a similar symbolic gesture. The State, by repenting for the original crimes of our republic would liberate our national memory, and accomplish a far-reaching act of French Friendship.

And it would be the end of that most fatal of dialectic traditions that constantly pits Frenchman against Frenchman.

The recognition of crimes perpetrated through the ages, by one faction or another, is the surest way of destroying the Manicheanism that is destroying our national unity. This ought to be a major concern of the State in the service of the Common Good of France and of the French people.

The cartoon below shows the Revolutionaries extolling Marat and the Jacobins. The French Left has been reenacting scenes like this ever since. Probably May 1968 was the most disastrous in its consequences. (From Suite101.)



Update: July 20, 2010 - A reader has pointed out a "glaring mistake" in the above introduction, with regard to geography. The city of Le Mans is not located in the department of Vendée, but in the department of Sarthe. Furthermore, the department we call Vendée was not created until 1790, after the Revolution was over. It was not part of the original royal provinces but was cobbled together from segments of several different provinces, in particular Bas-Poitou.

The error has been corrected in the text above. Apologies to anyone who might have been misled by the error. The reader also sent a link to this English-language article on the Vendean Wars.

The No-Law Zone Expands

Many of you will want to review the events of November 25 - 27, 2007 to better understand this post: (you can click the label Val-d'Oise below for all the articles). That November ended in an orgy of violence in the city of Villiers-le-Bel, when two teens were killed during a police chase. They had stolen a motorbike and in their flight crashed into a police car. Their deaths triggered two days of extreme violence:

"(...) unprecedented violence" according to the prosecutor's report. Eighty policemen were injured during the riots, escaping death often by a hair. Earlier this year, ten youths who threw rocks at the police were sentenced to jail terms of up to three years. Four others: Adama K., 29, his brother Abou, 28, Ibrahim S., 25, and Maka K., 22 have just been tried and convicted for the attempted murder of police officers. A fifth man, Samuel L., 24, was accused of having furnished them with a pump-action shotgun.

The policemen implicated in the deaths of the two teens, Mohsin and Lakamy, were not put on trial, a decision that is being appealed. (Source: Le Parisien)

An article dated July 3, 2010 in Le Parisien relates the outcome of the trial:

The criminal court of Val-d'Oise (photo above) convicted the five men accused of shooting at police officers during the Villiers-le-Bel riots to jail terms ranging from three to fifteen years. The verdict came at 2:15 a.m. after six hours and fifteen minutes of deliberation.

The decision was greeted by shouts and tears from the families, in an extremely tense atmosphere. Emotions were palpable tonight in the waiting rooms and outside the courthouse. By 3:30 a.m. no major incident had been reported and calm was restored.

Abou Kamara received a sentence of fifteen years for shooting at policemen during the riots; his brother Adama Kamara received a twelve year sentence. Both men had been designated as the leaders of the attacks. The prosecution had asked for twenty years. Ibrahim Sow was convicted to nine years in prison and Maka Kante, 23, to three for carrying a 4th category weapon. The prosecution had asked for fifteen years for both men. Samuel Lambalamba, 24, received three years for furnishing a pump-action shotgun, instead of the seven requested by the prosecution.

The defense had demanded an acquittal, knowing it would not be granted. Morad Falek, Abou Kamara's attorney, said: "I expected this. A verdict must be respected, but I cannot accept this. I can't help feeling that there was a special context in this case", referring to statements made by Nicolas Sarkozy after the riots. Michel Konitz, Adama Kamara's attorney said: "I'm disappointed. This was indeed a trial of the ghettoes. The whole case rested on anonymous testimonies that aimed to show that in Villiers-le-Bel you cannot speak. It's a vicious circle."

The article goes on to describe the anger of the defense lawyers over the fact that the identities of the witnesses were kept secret, hence nothing could be proven. They also denounced the payments made to the witnesses:

"Civic duty is incompatible with money. A civic action is not reimbursed," insisted Gaelle Dumond, Maka Kanté's lawyer.

Here is the surprisingly honest account of the first day of the trial published by Le Monde, a paper known for its subservience to "official thought":

(...)The public was split in two. To the left, upon entering, were men in suits or in uniforms, all of them white, with one exception. They were the plaintiffs and the witnesses, the victims of the riots of November 25 and 26, 2007. The first day of the rioting, 656 police had intervened; 52 were injured, including 26 who had been hit by bullets (...) The second day, 680 police were on the scene; 81 were injured, 54 from firearms.

To the right, except for journalists, the public was entirely black, like the five defendants. The room was too small, even the witnesses could not get in. During the recesses, some people gave their seats to others. For the defense, the conditions necessary for a "normal trial" were not fulfilled. Who would be escorted out? (...) In the end, the public was admitted by turns, after being screened by the riot police. (...)

Le Monde also points to the anger of the defense at the idea that in order to get testimony from witnesses, both anonymity and monetary compensation were granted.

Note: In all fairness I should point out that the readers' responses to the article are quite negative. They see the racial make-up of the courtroom that day as being different from the way Le Monde describes it. The photo below seems to justify their criticism, although the photo is not full size, so we cannot be certain. The right side appears to be all white, not all black as stated, but they could be the journalists alluded to in the article.



H/T: Yves Daoudal

Writer and social critic Renaud Camus posted his thoughts on this trial. As I have done before I use the simple word "we", where Camus uses the name of his party - "le parti de l'In-nocence":

(We) believe that with the on-going trials of those who committed acts of violence in Villiers-le-Bel, including real gunshots fired at several police officers, and with the state of total paralysis of a Justice system faced with one terrified witness after another refusing to testify, we have entered officially into the no-law ("non-droit") zone, a condition to which many sections of our territory are already subjected.

Note: "Lawlessness" is often used as a translation for "non-droit" which means "no law", but the French term also implies that the citizens have "no rights" while the foreigners have rights. So in reality, the law of the foreigner reigns, since the French police cannot enter these zones.

The "diversity" so loudly lauded is showing its true face in this situation. It has exposed its matchless aptitude for blocking the functioning of institutions established by a social contract, a contract which, from all evidence, has been blown to bits, as it confronts populations that are radically recalcitrant towards the minimum political pact as the West conceives it. This is easily understood when one looks at their countries of origin that are inevitably dictatorships.

In such a context, the notions of good and evil, of rights and no-rights, of respect and lack of respect for the law are totally stripped of meaning when confronted with the realities, demands, interdictions and fundamental solidarity of ethnic and cultural loyalties. (...)

Below, the motor bike that the two youths were riding when they smashed up.



Reminder: The same weekend of November 25-26, 2007, saw the brutal slaying of Anne-Lorraine Schmitt, a young Catholic girl who found herself alone in a subway car with a Turk armed with a knife. It was Sunday morning, and she was on her way to church.