Hey Look, France is waking up! (too little too late award)

[StPaulieGirl]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAVXE8N4OD.html

France Divided, Young Muslims Angry, at Proposals to Banish Islamic Head Scarves From Schools
By John Leicester Associated Press Writer
Published: Dec 12, 2003


 
 
 
 
 
PARIS (AP) - After Friday prayers at a Paris mosque, a simple question about the possibility of France outlawing Islamic head scarves in schools provoked a heated protest.
"I urge all our brothers not to take their kids to school!" cried Mohammed, a Muslim of North African origin. The crowd, drawn by his appeals, murmured its approval.

The danger of France's new effort to protect its secular traditions, these angry young men said, is that it will drive Muslims even further away from the rest of the country.

But Bernard Stasi, the head of a presidential panel that recommended the law against head scarves and other religious symbols in schools, including Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, indicated Friday that France has no choice.

The law, Stasi said, will not solve all the country's problems with its large, often poorly integrated immigrant community. But he said France cannot allow Muslims to undermine its core values, which include a strict separation of religion and state, equality between the sexes and freedom for all.

"There are indisputably Muslims or ... groups seeking to test the resistance of the Republic, that bear a grudge against the values of the Republic, that want France to no longer be France," Stasi said on France-Inter radio. "We cannot tolerate that."

His commission's report, released Thursday, painted a grim picture of a nation struggling to accommodate different races, cultures and religions - while clinging to the belief that secularism best ensures equality for all.

French public schools should be neutral grounds that protect students from the "violence and furies of society" outside, the report said.

Yet, in school playgrounds, Jewish children are commonly insulted as "dirty Jew" and it "can be dangerous" for them to wear skullcaps on the street or on public transportation, said the 67-page report, the result of six months of study.

One student told the commission that at their high school any Jew who wore a skullcap would be "lynched." Efforts to teach Jewish history are treated with such derision in some schools that instruction about the Holocaust "becomes impossible," the report said.

In some urban ghettos, meanwhile, young Muslim women are forced to cover up and lower their eyes before men; otherwise "they are stiSLURPized as 'whores,'" the report said. It added that preteen girls are sometimes forced to wear head scarves, and that some fathers or husbands have refused to let male doctors treat their wives or daughters in hospitals.

"Basic rights of women are today scorned on a daily basis in our country. Such a situation is unacceptable," the report said.

President Jacques Chirac, who has previously made clear his opposition to head scarves in schools, is expected to announce Wednesday his stance on a law based on the panel's recommendations.

Any law against head scarves would alienate young Muslims like those who spoke with such passion outside the ramshackle mosque in a poor, multiracial section of Paris' 18th district.

Women "are emeralds, jewels - the more they are shielded, the more beautiful they become. They lose their luster if they are outdoors," said Riadh Chabaoui, in his 20s. "In religious life, women must wear veils."

Mohammed, who wouldn't give his full name, said legislating against head scarves would backfire. He said he tells his wife that she's beautiful in her scarf because it is "the flag of all Muslims."

"If you make me choose between breaking the law and breaking the Quran, I'll break the law," he said, referring to the Muslim holy book. "Today, they forbid us from wearing veils. Tomorrow, they'll forbid us from being Muslims."

Non-Muslims also warned that a law could carry dangers.

"Secularism has worked until now," said Monsignor Jean-Michel di Falco, auxiliary bishop of Gap, in southeastern France. "In my opinion, a law risks making this problem even harder to manage."

About 7 percent of France's 60 million people are Muslims; Jews make up 1 percent of the population.

Many Muslims immigrated from France's former North African colonies after World War II, working in factories and living in suburbs now corroded by unemployment and crime.

Stasi acknowledged some "immigrants feel they are not considered to be completely French, feel that they are victims of discrimination."

"In such conditions, it is not surprising that they seek refuge in what is called their community and that they lend a too-often sympathetic ear to those who cast doubt on the values of our Republic," he said.

Not all Muslims oppose banning head scarves. Some say a law would protect young girls from male relatives who force them to cover up.

"The veil is for home," said an elderly African begging outside the mosque, who spoke up only after the crowd of younger men had dispersed.

"When you are at school, or in the office, take it off," he said, adding: "If you don't like that, go back to your own country."

AP-ES-12-12-03 1436EST


Copyright 2003 Associated Press


Fork France.

[Brent]

> "I urge all our brothers not to take their kids to
> school!" cried Mohammed, a Muslim of North African origin.

Oooh, yeah, that'll teach 'em. lol

Shortchange your kid's education- way to go, Mohammed.

Yeah, I bet the French school administrators are pissing in their pants right now at the prospect of this frightening retaliatory gesture.

[Kitty C.]

'"When you are at school, or in the office, take it off," he said, adding: "If you don't like that, go back to your own country." '

Couldn't have said it better myself.  As they say, 'When in Rome/Paris, do as the Romans/Parisians do.......'

[StPaulieGirl]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004422

About Those Iraq Contracts
Help our allies, or the French? You decide.

Friday, December 12, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

OK, it was probably bad timing. Just at the moment the U.S. is going to ask Germany, France and Russia to forgive a big chunk of Iraqi debt, the U.S. put its finger in their collective eye.

We mean, of course, the list released by the Defense Department of the 63 countries that are eligible to bid for $18.6 billion of Iraq reconstruction work. The excluded countries--those that didn't lift a finger to help the U.S. and its coalition partners--immediately went berserk. Germany pronounced the list as "unacceptable" and Russia threatened to withhold any debt forgiveness.

But beyond the issue of possible bad timing, the Bush Administration is right on target in principle. The U.S. and its allies have spent blood and treasure to liberate Iraq and will spend a lot more to put Iraq back on its feet economically and politically. This particular $18.6 billion was pledged by the U.S.; it has nothing to do with money offered by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. And the American taxpayers who stand behind it undoubtedly have an interest in seeing it spent on those countries that were there when the U.S. needed them.
The list of eligible countries reflects not so much a punishment for those that were missing, but recognition of those that--some at great political risk--made the sacrifice. Britain and Poland sent fighting troops, for example, and Italy, Spain and others have provided security forces. They've all taken casualties.

Germany and France not only opposed the war but actually tried to obstruct the waging of it. They did not pledge any money at the donors' conference in Madrid this fall. And they, along with Russia, have not sent any troops to postwar Iraq. Worse, these countries, which took what they implied was the high moral ground against the war, are now complaining that they cannot make private profit from its aftermath. It's not a pretty sight.

In fact, given their opposition to the war, U.S. reconstruction plans can be seen as generous. The prohibition applies only to the 26 prime contracts. The majority of the money will be spent at the sub-contractor level and all countries--except for a few outlaw states--are welcome to bid on those. And it is expected that the currently outraged countries will indeed be successful bidders.

Moreover, the Bush Administration has hinted that the door is not closed. A friendly gesture to Iraq, either in debt forgiveness or the provision of troops, might elicit a friendly gesture from the U.S. On Wednesday, President Bush talked to the leaders of Germany, France and Russia about debt forgiveness. In characterizing those chats, a White House spokesperson, while reaffirming the policy on reconstruction contracts, said that the President had made it clear that "the lines of communication would be kept open."

This makes sense to us. Debt forgiveness is a crucial step in reconstituting Iraq as a healthy, functioning democratic state. If Germany, France and Russia agree with that goal--as they should, but we're beginning to wonder--then making their contribution to Iraqi reconstruction in the form of debt forgiveness is a reasonable route.
Put baldly, when the U.S. drew up its list of contractors to bid on its own money, it had a choice--put a finger in the eye of the countries that sat out the war or in the eye of its allies. We think the Bush Administration chose wisely.

Fork the French! Boycott their asses into oblivion!