Last October, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, laid out the vision behind a new, deeply controversial bill. The government claimed a minority of France’s estimated 6 million Muslims were at risk of forming a “counter-society” and the bill was designed to tackle the dangers of this “Islamist separatism”.
Macron is right.
It is undoubtedly true that Islamists and the western left have made common cause over the last 30 to 40 years
It’s always the French, isn’t it? Not content with having given the modern world existentialism, structuralism, deconstructionism (with some help from the Belgians) and Marxist psychoanalytic, they have also, it seems, produced something called Islamo-gauchisme — allegedly an unholy alliance between some on the left and Islamists.
And a lot of people are very cross about this. Or rather, cross with President Macron and his ministers for daring to suggest first that Islamo-gauchisme is actually a thing, then that it might represent a threat to the cohesion of the Fifth Republic — indeed the western liberal order as a whole — and that it, therefore, needs to be resisted.
The French National Assembly on Friday approved a controversial “anti-separatism” bill despite strong criticisms from parliamentarians from the Left and the Right. The government argued the legislation was needed to bolster France’s secular system, but critics say it breaches religious freedom.
After an acrimonious seven-month debate – with the text going back and forth between France’s lower house, the National Assembly, and the Senate – the anti-separatist bill was approved by 49 votes to 19. There were five abstentions.
In a fiery speech, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Friday railed against the “anti-Republican law”, which he said was “anti-Muslim”.
Not “anti-Muslim” Mr. Mélenchon, but pro-civilization.
Two police officers attacked in Paris by individuals of “African type” who believed them to be gay
At around 4:30 am, this Saturday morning July 24, two police officers were assaulted in the streets of the Oberkampf district, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. According to our information, the two officials, who were not on duty, were attacked by two men and two women. Described by a police source as being of “African type”, the attackers would have taken the police for homosexuals, without knowing who they were really attacking.
Macron announced on July 13th that two island regions of France (Martinique and La Réunion) would return to the sanitary emergency status and adopt an 11 PM curfew.
The President also announced that starting July 21st, a vaccine passport would be required to partake in any non-essential activity with over 50 people (theatres, concert halls, festivals, etc.)
This measure will apply to every citizen aged 12 years and older.
A French court on Wednesday handed down suspended prison sentences of between four to six months to 11 people who were found guilty of online harassment of a teen for her anti-Islam videos published on social media.
The prosecutions came after the teen, known as Mila, was forced to change schools and accept police protection after threats to her life.
Since her first videos in 2020, the previously unknown schoolgirl has become a divisive public figure, seen by supporters as a symbol of free speech and the right to blasphemy, and by critics as deliberately provocative and Islamophobic.
“…There are around 23,000 names on France’s Watch List for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalization (FSPRT). Of the 1,115 people recorded there whose residence status was irregular, the statistics show that 601 foreigners were deported back to their home countries over the past three years – i.e. more than half. Of the remaining 514 “potential terrorists,” a large number are currently serving prison sentences or are in custody pending deportation.”
Groups of men sit on park benches with litter up to their knees. Others lie face down in the dirt. The smell of urine and rubbish festering in the sunshine hangs in the air.
Dealers known as modous move among the bushes, whispering incentives to seduce their clients with crack from the “kitchen” on a nearby street.
A man in shorts performs a solitary dance. Another lights his crack pipe and waits for the high to kick in.
A poll has revealed that 62 per cent of French people would support holding a nationwide referendum on the subject of limiting immigration to France.
… Gen Lecointre quit a day after it was reported Mr Macron’s government forced him to summon the six to a “higher disciplinary council” for their remarks. They risk losing their status as reserve officers.
French newspaper Le Monde reported the government pressured Gen Lecointre to speak out against the signatories, even though military officials wanted the matter dealt with privately.
Gen Lecointre said at the time there was no desire for an uprising within military ranks and accused the retired generals of breaking their duty. “The more senior they are, the more serious the sanctions will be,” he said.
In a response to the letter, Ms Le Pen urged the generals to “join her in the battle for France”.
“I can say that I share their concern, I share their assessment,” she said.
Funding from abroad is dividing the country
France has a serious mosque problem. There are not enough of them to go around.
Some of the country’s 6,000,000 Muslims worship in informal prayer rooms which occasionally become breeding grounds for radical, anti-western Islamist teaching. Financing new mosques is difficult in a secular country where public subsidies for religion are banned.
“I look on every side and all I see is darkness.”
I use that quote from Pascal (Pensées, 229) because I am not setting out to assert positive truths nor to defend opinions. I see a situation which — as Pascal writes in his next sentence — “offers nothing but cause for doubt and anxiety”.
In asking me to give an opinion on the now celebrated “Letter of the Generals,” UnHerd‘s Will Lloyd rightly notes: “What seems most extraordinary about the furore that followed is that so few people questioned the premise of the letter — that France is on the point of collapse.”
Ow, la la!
French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on video being slapped across the face Tuesday during a tour to “take the country’s pulse” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“À bas la Macronie!” a man could be heard shouting — “Down with Macronia!” — at the 43-year-old leader in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome region.
Macron came with all that agility and stamina to receive Slap pic.twitter.com/GyVzfRDn6v
— Noble 🔴 (@Noble_Hassan) June 8, 2021
An LGBT police group has stated it will not be taking part in a Pride parade in Paris which is set to start in the no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, over fears regarding officer safety.
The police LGBT group FLAG! released a statement this week saying that due to safety concerns for officers, they would not be participating in the Pride march this year.
Thirteen people have gone on trial in France charged with online harassment, including death threats, against a teenage girl who was placed under police protection after posting anti-Islam rants on social media.
The girl, named only as Mila, was forced to change schools over her expletive-laden videos, and the episode fuelled a debate about the right to offend people’s religious beliefs.
“The Qur’an is filled with nothing but hate, Islam is a shitty religion,” the teen said in the first post on Instagram in January 2020. She was 16 at the time.
I’d say she nailed it.
Pakistani court acquits Christian couple sentenced to death for blasphemy
…Kausar and Emmanuel were convicted following a complaint by a shopkeeper who claimed to have seen the text message.
Amnesty International said: “Today’s decision puts an end to the seven-year long ordeal of a couple who should not have been convicted nor faced a death sentence in the first place. ‘Blasphemy’ cases are often premised on flimsy evidence in environments that make fair trials impossible, underscoring the significance of this verdict. The authorities must now immediately provide Shafqat, Shagufta, their family and their lawyer Saiful ul-Malook with adequate security.”
They’re Dead Men Walking now.
On its website, Milli Gorus Association, a Turkish diaspora group, claims it will be “comparable in symbolism” to Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, the world’s oldest Gothic cathedral.
But a row over its funding has President Emmanuel Macron’s government accusing it of symbolising something far less flattering – namely “foreign interference” against its attempts to build an apolitical “Islam of France” and to stamp out Islamist “separation”.
