"We will not back down again..."

Update: October 21 - In the introduction below I state that this is the second mosque for Poitiers. I'm not certain now. In April 2009 I posted an article on a mosque under construction in Poitiers, set to be completed by June 2010. A second mosque was on the agenda. When today's story broke, I assumed this was the second mosque. But all indications are it is the first mosque that is still under construction, more than two years later. I will try to verify this and post another update.

Le Figaro has a short article. Le Salon Beige has much more, especially in the comment section. The Génération Identitaire, a movement within the Bloc Identitaire that produced the video entitled Declaration of War (see my previous post), occupied the Poitiers mosque this morning. This mosque, in the construction stage, is the second mosque for Poitiers, the city where the invading Arab Muslim army was pushed back by Charles Martel in 732. On the façade, opposite the minaret, they deployed a banner reading: 

"Immigration, mosque construction: REFERENDUM!"

At their website they explain:

Almost 1300 years ago, Charles Martel stopped the Arabs in Poitiers after an heroic battle that saved our country from the Muslim invasion. It was October 25, 732. Today the choice is the same: live free or die. Our generation refuses to see its people and its identity disappear in indifference. We will never be the Indians of Europe (i.e., the American Indians.) From this place symbolic of our past and of the courage of our ancestors, we are launching an appeal to remember and to fight! We do not want any more non-European immigration or any new mosques constructed on French soil. Since the first waves of African immigration and family reunification in 1974, our people have never been consulted on the populations they are forced to live with. Massive immigration is radically transforming our country: according to the latest INSEE study, 43% of those 18-50 years old in the region of Ile-de-France are immigrants or their descendants. A people can overcome an economic crisis or a war but not a replacement of our population: without Frenchmen, France no longer exists. It's a question of survival: it is why every people has the absolute right to choose if it wishes to accept foreigners and in what proportion. Since we have been refused this right and our generation is paying the high price in the street confronted with threats from the scum, we say: that's enough, we will no longer back down! We demand a national referendum on immigration and mosque construction in France. We will not leave this place until we are heard."

Around noon, the activists agreed to leave after negotiations with the prefecture. Some were held in custody. Interior Minister Manuel Valls and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who have little to say when a church is profaned, have already condemned this act.

A few comments from Le Salon Beige readers:

 - Bravo for this action. As usual the Identitaires (i.e., the Bloc Identitaire and the youth movement Génération Identitaire) show that they can shake up the media. Now, we have to fight and draw a comparison between the hysterical reactions that will surely condemn their act, and the reaction of the media, the politicians and the religious associations who were scandalized by the condemnation of the "Pussy Riots" that wreaked havoc in a Christian cathedral of Moscow.

These people will probably be the first to condemn the young Identitarians who deployed a banner over the Poitiers mosque: a double standard and all the hypocrisy of the anti-Putinists and the pro-Islamists.

 - Bravo to these "real young people" born of a France that is disappearing, who have the courage of their acts and who have a culture that the "false young people" with their media-Marxist rhetoric, who were born of Afro-Maghrebin immigration, have never had. The Republic will never save France. That is not its role. The Republic is internationalist, like the former USSR.

 - There are times when I am ashamed to be a Catholic:

"Representatives of the diocese of Poitiers came early in the morning to bring their support to the Muslim community…"

These princes and clerics should not be surprised to find themselves marginalized (even challenged) in the future. When there are profanations or illegal occupations of Christian churches (Saint Denis cathedral, for example) they are less quick to react, if they react at all.

Note: The above information about the diocese, which appears on Twitter, is challenged by Le Salon Beige. The diocese of Poitiers responds to the Twitter comment with this question: "Who are these representatives of the diocese?"

Another reader has an opinion:

 - In my opinion, they were indeed leftist Christians, but not representatives of the diocese. If for no other reason than the bishops take much longer to react. That the question arose immediately shows the extent to which the faithful are suspicious of their own bishops.

 - Solidarity!

Note: This event has made world headlines. A quick Google confirms that all the French authorities have loudly denounced the action by the Génération Identitaire.