Boris
08-09-2004, 07:42 PM
Here are some quotes from an article on the front page of today's the Wall Street Journal. The article talks about Frances's effort to deal with anti-western idealogues. The French are basically deporting non-citizens who don't agree with basic principals of a democratic, secular republic. The article also noted that the French government specifically tries to make immigrants leave their native language behind and assimilate into the French culture. The effort isn't exactly a success. I believe that France's relatively tough stance against the radical Muslims stems partly from a collective national guilt about the holocaust and the fact that Muslim on Jewish hate crimes have been on the rise in France. There is also a very strong current of racism against Arabs in general so the average Frenchman probably isn't too worried about civil liberties when it comes to the Arabs. I should also note that one of the first things Qaddafi did when he came into power was to expel known members of the Muslim Brotherhood and outlaw the group. In retrospect it appears that the US was a bit slow to catch on.
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Mihdat Guler was 17 years old when he moved here from his native Turkey to find work in 1976. Over time, he saved enough money to buy a tidy house in this middle-class Paris suburb, where he lived a quiet life as a legal immigrant with his wife and five children.
One afternoon three months ago, Mr. Guler learned he had overstayed his welcome. Police stopped his van as he was returning from selling sewing supplies at an outdoor market and arrested him. Within a few weeks, he was on a flight to Istanbul, unsure when he would see his family again.
The French government's accusation: Mr. Guler was preaching hatred and violence against the West at a Muslim prayer room in Paris. It also alleges that he belongs to a group that seeks an Islamic state in Turkey. Mr. Guler denies the government's allegations.
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Mr. Gular is not entitled to a trial, only an administrative hearing.
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Mr. Guler is one of eight Muslim men France has expelled this year on the ground that they are preachers who foment anti-Western sentiment and violence in their sermons. These imams often have little religious education but a big influence over Muslim youths, the French government says.
"Today, one can no longer separate terrorist acts from the words that feed them," Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin recently told the French Council of the Muslim Faith, an organization created last year to represent the interests of France's Muslims.
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Other Western European countries with large Muslim communities, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, haven't gone as far as France for fear of undermining basic civil liberties. But the U.K. has recently begun threatening to hold Islamic preachers accountable for their words. In Germany, expulsions require court orders, and courts have been unwilling to send radicals back to countries with questionable human-rights records. Some of the preachers France has deported have challenged their expulsions in court, but only one has had tentative success.
France argues that its tough stance pays off: There has been no terrorism on French soil since Algeria's Armed Islamic Group conducted a wave of bombings in Paris in 1995. And France harbored none of the cells that plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. or the March 11 train bombings in Spain.
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With hundreds of mosques springing up across the country, the government took to promoting the notion of a "French Islam," in harmony with France's republican ideals and devoid of foreign theological influences. As a rule, France wants its immigrants to leave their languages and cultural origins behind and become primarily French.
But this French Islam has been a difficult concept to put into practice. Of the more than 1,500 imams who lead Friday prayers across France, fewer than 300 have formal religious educations, according to the National Federation of French Muslims. Many hail from countries such as Algeria that are hotbeds of extremism. Schools created in the past decade to educate French imams have produced few graduates. The government has become increasingly concerned that the poorly trained foreign imams are radicalizing people with their virulent sermons. As a rule, France wants its immigrants to leave their languages and cultural origins behind and become primarily French.
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Mihdat Guler was 17 years old when he moved here from his native Turkey to find work in 1976. Over time, he saved enough money to buy a tidy house in this middle-class Paris suburb, where he lived a quiet life as a legal immigrant with his wife and five children.
One afternoon three months ago, Mr. Guler learned he had overstayed his welcome. Police stopped his van as he was returning from selling sewing supplies at an outdoor market and arrested him. Within a few weeks, he was on a flight to Istanbul, unsure when he would see his family again.
The French government's accusation: Mr. Guler was preaching hatred and violence against the West at a Muslim prayer room in Paris. It also alleges that he belongs to a group that seeks an Islamic state in Turkey. Mr. Guler denies the government's allegations.
[/ QUOTE ]
Mr. Gular is not entitled to a trial, only an administrative hearing.
[ QUOTE ]
Mr. Guler is one of eight Muslim men France has expelled this year on the ground that they are preachers who foment anti-Western sentiment and violence in their sermons. These imams often have little religious education but a big influence over Muslim youths, the French government says.
"Today, one can no longer separate terrorist acts from the words that feed them," Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin recently told the French Council of the Muslim Faith, an organization created last year to represent the interests of France's Muslims.
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Other Western European countries with large Muslim communities, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, haven't gone as far as France for fear of undermining basic civil liberties. But the U.K. has recently begun threatening to hold Islamic preachers accountable for their words. In Germany, expulsions require court orders, and courts have been unwilling to send radicals back to countries with questionable human-rights records. Some of the preachers France has deported have challenged their expulsions in court, but only one has had tentative success.
France argues that its tough stance pays off: There has been no terrorism on French soil since Algeria's Armed Islamic Group conducted a wave of bombings in Paris in 1995. And France harbored none of the cells that plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. or the March 11 train bombings in Spain.
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
With hundreds of mosques springing up across the country, the government took to promoting the notion of a "French Islam," in harmony with France's republican ideals and devoid of foreign theological influences. As a rule, France wants its immigrants to leave their languages and cultural origins behind and become primarily French.
But this French Islam has been a difficult concept to put into practice. Of the more than 1,500 imams who lead Friday prayers across France, fewer than 300 have formal religious educations, according to the National Federation of French Muslims. Many hail from countries such as Algeria that are hotbeds of extremism. Schools created in the past decade to educate French imams have produced few graduates. The government has become increasingly concerned that the poorly trained foreign imams are radicalizing people with their virulent sermons. As a rule, France wants its immigrants to leave their languages and cultural origins behind and become primarily French.
[/ QUOTE ]