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October 20, 2020 - 4:00pm
Just days after President Macron’s landmark speech on tackling “Islamist separatism”, an Islamist assassin decapitated a French schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, in broad daylight in a Paris suburb.
As Aris Roussinos has pointed out: the ongoing reverberations from Charlie Hebdo are as much a question of sovereignty as free speech, who decides what can and can’t be said – la République, or a gunman? Indeed, it appears that Paty has become a martyr for the Republic.
Macron’s campaign against Islamism too, is better understood as a battle for sovereignty than as counterterrorism, an effort to reclaim the “territories conquered by Islamism.”
In the banlieues and ecosystems where Salafists and Islamists exert the most influence, they have deliberately erected barriers between Muslims and wider society. Some of the institutions dotting the Islamist landscape operate with generous support from overseas. This foreign backing undermines the principle of laïcité, prohibiting state support for religion. Hence, Macron’s vow to “liberate French Islam from foreign influence.”
This is also where Macron’s rocky relationship with Erdogan comes in, whose party uses Islamists to leverage influence across Europe. The Turkish president hit back immediately, calling the speech an “open provocation,” accusing Macron of acting like a “colonial governor.” Macron is clear that political Islam and its subversive agenda are his target, yet Erdogan’s play is the same as the Western Islamists’: to present political Islam and Islam as one and the same.
Erdogan though, is just one of many players. In 2019, explosive documents revealed Qatar’s “guerre d’influence” over Islam and support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, causing a national controversy in France.
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SubscribeYet again, blood is spilled in Paris over blasphemy and French patience has run out.
Has it though? Has patience really run out or is Macron responding to the moment with no follow-up plan? I’d like to think some European leaders have gotten their fuzzy touchy-feeliness and understood that some cultures are incompatible with the West. The point of immigration is to benefit the host country. When it fails to do that, reconsider the policy.
Only the Slavs and some Eastern states have the right attitude. Just dont accept them. Thats not to say there are not muslims in these countries but they have learned, as we all should, to assimilate, give and take, honour or at least abide and add to the culture you have decided to make your future in. Serving overseas our cultural officer would often advise on local laws and customs. It did not matter a tinkers cuss if you thought it was a bad idea not to pee in the main square fountain and expect the local militia to give you a pass and laugh at your antics, the main point was – no matter how you view the laws and customs, how stupid they sound to Western ears, it was NOT our country and plain good old fashioned nous was always best served by obeying every Countries laws. I am always amazed that the arrivals in dinghies take no heed, yet would not act in such fashion in their own sh1tholes for fear of losing a tongue or a hand, then it strikes me that is why they head for Blighty.
Well it is sort-of gratifying to see the politicians catch up with the rest of us. However, we then have this:
“Hence, Macron’s vow to “liberate French Islam from foreign influence.”
Has it not occurred to Macron and the countless other morons that French Islam has no desire to be liberated from foreign influences. As far as they are concerned, the French are a foreign and unwelcome influence on their quest for an Islamic Europe.
As for what Macron will do next, it will probably involve insulting the English over Brexit.
All those involved in M. Paty’s murder should be expelled from France to somewhere more compatible with their values. Then others of the same mind should be invited to leave voluntarily with a resettlement package. If they stay they should expect to integrate or face future expulsion without compensation for any serious transgressions against French values. (None of this will happen, of course.)
“Erdogan though, is just one of many players.” Yes, but one with ambition to become the next Caliph, if possible over the whole of Europe.
If UK uphold 1964 International Fishing Treaty,;Territorial 22-200 Mile fishing Zone.in the north Sea & Channel He will be Under Pressure from Fishermen,and Marie Le pen to hold ‘Frexit’ referendum..forget dopey Biden Globalism is dying,ironically because of SARS2
Look at the history of Cyprus.
‘His presence in Mulhouse was deliberate ” this is the site of a mega-Mosque complex accused of Muslim Brotherhood links and significant Qatari support. The complex, symbolic of the anxieties over Islamist separatism, contains everything from a preschool and a supermarket to a swimming pool and a morgue.’
I didn’t know about this complex in Mulhouse. But in a sense I don’t mind it. I have said for some years that the only solution left to us is to grant Islam its own spaces in Europe, on the condition that there is no manifestation of Islam permitted outside those spaces. Essentially, that means no moslems outside those spaces, certainly no women because the headscarf counts as a manifestation of Islam. They would receive no welfare but would pay no taxes. Obviously they would be allowed to import and export goods and services.
Good luck with that condition. What do you think happens when a nation “grants” people who do wish to assimilate into that nation their own space? They get along and play nice with everyone? No, just the opposite. And when you start allowing cutouts and exemptions for one group, you have no principled opposition for saying no to later groups.
Is this idea of a separate enclave, along the lines of the initial agreement the British (after the withdrawal of Rome) gave to the Anglo Saxons?
It did not turn out well for the British !
Perhaps it is time for us to learn Arabic.
What a ridiculous idea, Muslim spaces in Europe like Israel and Palestine. Checkpoints, walls, tunnels , mortar attacks.
I can see Fraser now standing in queue waiting with his ID card at the checkpoint for three hours just to get a Sunday paper, congratulating himself on his foresight, while a British soldier checks him out though his foresight.
Ghettoise Islam? Really?
And how do you think they’ll react to those suggestions?
The only upside to your plan isthat it might create some sense of Islamic Jewish fraternity via shared experience.