Garbanzo Toons

A Frenchman with a Spine, Italian Dhimmis

According to this article in Haaretz, there are some in France like Xavier Lemoine, mayor of Montfermeil who do "get it" when it comes to the Islamic peril facing Europe.

"Look," he said, standing at the window of his office and pointing at the immigrant neighborhood, "it's either them or us. If they win, we are dead ducks. I am a proud French Catholic and I have no intention of living as a 'dhimmi' (a non-Muslim enjoying protected status in a Muslim country - D.B.S.) in my own country. We are different from them, and these people do not represent France. We are caught in the middle of an Islamic war being fought all over the world - in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Everything that happens over there has reverberations here in France and influences the immigrants."

Initially, he thought the "rebellion" was being fueled by poverty and problems of integration in a new society. He soon realized that the Muslims were a cultural challenge to his country. One incident, for instance, continues to haunt him.

"It was two months after September 11," he recalled. "We were holding a festival of drawings in our kindergartens and elementary schools. I was amazed to find that 20 percent of the children, all of them Muslims, had depicted Osama bin Laden as a cultural hero. That discovery still sends shivers down my spine."

For the past few nights, he has been troubled by a recurring nightmare in which immigrants flee their houses and burn down the city. He is sure the Muslim immigrants have declared war on France with the intention of bringing it to its knees. He considers the Jews allies in this confrontation. "I am pained by the thought that my country is ashamed of its culture and values. When France denies its own history and incessantly apologizes for slavery, for its conquests and for colonialism, is it any wonder that the immigrants are rising up against it and are showing no respect for it? Unfortunately, France has not demanded that they change. It has allowed them to speak Arabic and to cultivate their heritage at the expense of French culture."

Construction will soon begin in Montfermeil on a mosque with a 12-meter minaret. According to Lemoine, because of a lack of Muslim places of worship, he gave in to pressure and permitted the building of the mosque, which is intended to serve the 25,000 Muslims in the area. He hopes the prayer services and the opening of a place where Muslims can gather will cool passions in their community; however, he has no illusions. "This is a struggle between cultures," he sighs. "It is a war between Islam and Western culture. France and all of Europe are in danger. If we fail to understand the extent of the Muslim threat, we are in grave peril."

We know, of course, that the building of this mosque will only empower the local Muslims to demand more. If Mayor Lemoine had more support from the spineless French and deluded EU governements, maybe he wouldn't be in this situation.

Meanwhile, in Italy, assorted mental midgets, moral retards, and dhimmis are allowing Oriana Fallaci to be brought to trial for defaming Islam. The charge is being brought by a certain Adel Smith.

As far as I know, Ms. Fallaci is living in New York City and has no plans to visit Italy to face these fools.

Labels: Adel Smith, dhimmis, France, Italy, Oriana Fallaci

posted by Harry @ 12:13 PM 0 comments

French Bravery

According to this article by Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal the Frence press is showing more gumption in standing up to Islamic fanatics than the American Media, who continue to remind me of Bob Hope in his old movies where he would pretend to be brave, but end up hiding behind the skirts of his leading lady.

Check this out:

This time, the French have put the British and Americans to shame. From the outset of the crisis over the Danish caricatures, they have vigorously defended the right of free expression, unlike the British and Americans, whose pretence that they “understand” Muslim outrage has fooled no one and given the fanatics the (correct) impression of weakness and lack of conviction—and thus encouraged them.

Two French satirical weeklies with Voltairean aplomb, Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, have published a series of cartoons mocking the Islamists and their beliefs as they deserve, with a courage and frankness almost entirely missing from the British and American media.

Charlie Hebdo’s front page, for example, has Muhammad, grimacing with his hands over his eyes, saying: “It’s hard being loved by all these idiots.” On the next page, Muhammad looks at the Danish cartoons and says, “It’s the first time the Danes have made me laugh.”

[ . . . ]

A Muslim association tried in the French courts to have Charlie Hebdo banned, but the courts firmly rejected the request, and the edition sold out quickly. The two papers have inflicted a humiliation on the Islamists, in the best possible way, by exposing their intellectual nullity to withering scorn. No one can accuse the two papers, either, of racism, xenophobia, or any of the other crimes of lèse-PC, since they criticize and mock everyone (who deserves it) without fear or favor.

Go read the whole thing and offer up a cheer to the French publications: Le Canard Enchaîné and Charile Hebdo. It makes me wonder what Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein would have done during this whole mess if they were still at the helm of MAD Magazine.

Labels: City Journal, France, Theodore Dalrymple

posted by Harry @ 3:20 PM 0 comments

France's Problem

In times like this, we in the West, who are facing a vicious, determined, immoral enemy, need leaders who are strong, bold, and willing to stand up to assults from the quislings in their midst. I'm hoping we do, but I'm not convinced we have leaders who are up to the job. That is especially true in France. They need a leader with strong convictions, someone intelligent and perceptive. But they have Jacques Chirac. According to the Associated Press:

President Jacques Chirac directly addressed for the first time the inequalities and discrimination that have fueled two weeks of rioting across France, saying Thursday that the country has "undeniable problems" in its poor neighborhoods.

Violence continued to slow under state-of-emergency measures and heavy policing, with far fewer skirmishes and fewer cars burned. And eight police officers were suspended, two of them suspected of beating a man held during the riots.

Chirac had spoken publicly about the unrest only once in a brief address focused on security measures. But on Thursday, he said that once order is restored, France will have to "draw the consequences of this crisis, and do so with a lot of courage and lucidity."

"There is a need to respond strongly and rapidly to the undeniable problems faced by many residents of underprivileged neighborhoods around our cities," he said.

"Whatever our origins, we are all the children of the republic, and we can all expect the same rights," Chirac said.

I was wondering; is he truly that afraid to face the facts or is he still sleepwalking? And then I read this analysis
of the "death of France" over at Right Wing Nut House

This can only mean trouble for French citizens as radical Islam spreads its message of hate and murder among the more impressionable and uneducated masses of Muslims who make up the bulk of rioters.

What can the French do about it? Not too damn much. One might be tempted to say “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” but the fact is, France has lost the will to defend itself and the western values represented by more than 1000 years of French civilization. Ever since the grandsons of Charlemagne divvied up his kingdom creating what became France and Germany, the French have been something of a self-appointed guardian of what we loosely term “western values.’ While these values have undergone enormous changes over the centuries, France has been at the forefront of redefining both human liberty and the individual’s relationship with the state.

That is, until World War I.

[. . .]

This latest challenge to the French nationalistic idea is being met with similar defeatism and timidity. And there is apparently nothing in the French soul to combat the threat. France is, after all, the birthplace of Deconstructionism, a movement that began as a new way to critique literature but ended up destroying the faith of the European left in western superiority. It should come as no surprise then, that the French are desperately seeking a way to accommodate the rioters rather than engage them on an intellectual level that would integrate them into French society.

The nation that was the home to some of the most articulate defenders of individual liberty has become a tired shadow of its former self. And for those who are saying that the riots are evidence of the death of France, I would say that it simply isn’t possible.

France has been dead for more than 80 years.

Agree or disagree with the conclusion, it's an interesting post.

Labels: France, French riots, Jacques Chirac, Muslims

posted by Harry @ 6:46 PM 0 comments

The Paris Intifada

From Mystery Achievement I linked to this editorial at the Jerusalem Post. Here is a very large chunk:

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the US media became preoccupied with a key question: "Why do they hate us so much?" A fair-minded people, the Americans believed there must be a good, rational explanation why 19 educated, economically comfortable young men would ram planes into buildings, killing themselves along with thousands of innocents.

Among the many reasons proffered, one that appeared frequently - and drew concern in Jerusalem - was that it was all due to US support for Israel. If the US would only toe a more pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian line, this argument ran, then the Arab and Muslim masses wouldn't hate it so.

The events in Paris over the last 12 days have confirmed the vacuity of this argument.

Since the mid-1960s, France has consistently been among the most pro-Arab countries in western Europe.

Indeed, one can make a compelling argument that one reason French President Jacques Chirac was so opposed to the US war in Iraq was that he believed this would give France special status among the world's Muslims.

France, unlike the US, cannot be accused of a pro-Israeli slant. Nevertheless, its Muslim youth are rioting in the banlieues of Paris. Though it is too early to dissect this ongoing French revolution, one thing that can already be said is that these rioters hate France - otherwise they wouldn't be destroying its property and setting fire to its towns and suburbs.

And this hatred of France has nothing to do with Israel.

Why is this important to state? Because for too long much of the West, with France at the vanguard, has tried to paper over its real conflict with radical Islam with the argument that if only a solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict could be found, then all would be well with the world and Islamic enmity would disappear.

Not so. The Muslim youth in France are not rioting as a sign of solidarity with their Palestinian or Iraqi brothers. They are rioting in large part because they feel discriminated against, alienated, and cut out of that great French "liberte, egalite, fraternite" pie.

The French would be wise to pay attention to the fact that these flames of alienation are being fanned and leveraged for their own use by Islamic radicals who - as the homegrown London bombers proved in July - are thriving on the streets of Europe.

Parallels can be found with our reality. At one time the Arab-Israeli conflict looked predominantly like a territorial one. Indeed, this thinking underpinned UN Security Council Resolution 242, which created the territories-for-peace rubric.

What was ignored was the religious and ideological component of the conflict. It is not coincidental that the recent Palestinian paroxysm of violence here goes by the name of al-Aksa Intifada - and not, for instance, the Gaza intifada, or the West Bank intifada.

Naming the violence after the mosque on the Temple Mount, and not one or other of the disputed territories, underlines that religious component, a component that - with the help of Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - has made the conflict much more violent, volatile and intractable. Land-for-peace, for the radical Islamic groups, has always been obsolete.

France - yes, ironically, France - has now awakened to find itself facing a similar dilemma.

I'm not gloating about Islamic riots in France. Even though they are stupidly anti-semitic and have repeatedly bent over further to get a better grip on their ankles whenever their Muslim masters - uh - I mean allies demanded it, I don't want France to be part of the Islamic caliphate. I'm really hoping they rediscover their warrior spirit and take their country back; even if it means they have to insult the sensibilities of their Muslim inhabitants - uh - I mean invaders.

Hey France! Find your spine! It's got to be around there somewhere!

Labels: France, French riots, Muslims, Mystery Achievement

posted by Harry @ 7:27 PM 1 comments