I don’t sense any enthusiasm among normal Jews (as opposed to activists) for Muslim immigration.
nce discovered recently that Marine Le Pen, leader of the extreme right-wing Front National, has a kindred spirit. Her name is Nadine Morano.
Like Le Pen, Morano is an immigrant-baiting and blunt-talking politician. A leading figure of the conservative Les Républicains, Morano is very close to the party’s leader, the once (and so he hopes) future president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Like the stale odor of a Gauloise cigarette, Morano trails behind her a long history of choice remarks on immigration in France, including comparing refugees to invaders and warning that they are “submerging” the nation.
But all this changed, and changed dramatically, on September 26, when she was the guest on the popular news show “ On N’est Pas Couché .” In the give and take on the subject of the refugee crisis, Morano announced not only that France’s roots were Judeo-Christian, but also that it was a “country of the white race, one where foreigners are welcomed.” To the general stupor of her interviewers and audience, she then doubled down on her claim: “I want France to remain French. I don’t want to see France become Muslim.”
It is beyond dispute that Christianity has deeply marked France. But as the historian of religion Henri Tincq drily noted, it doesn’t take a historian of religion to know this is not Morano’s point. Instead, her point is that Muslims have no business being in France. Tincq might have added that it does take a history degree to know that, all too often in France’s past, the emphasis on the country’s Christian roots has served as a reminder that the Jews had no place there, either.
Fortunately, France remained recognizably French in the political firestorm sparked by the interview. In the National Assembly the following day, Ericka Bareigts, a black representative from the island of La Réunion, rose to speak. “The France described by Madame Morano,” she declared, “is not mine.” Prime Minister Manuel Valls — himself a naturalized French citizen — followed with a fiery speech. Flanked by his government’s ministers, several of whom are offspring of North African immigrants, Valls turned toward Bareigts: “Yes, Madame, Marianne [France’s symbol of liberty] has neither race nor color, and you incarnate her today.”
Bareigts’ address spurred standing ovations from the ranks of the left — a heartening but also predictable response. Less predictable, given the divide between socialists and conservatives in France, was that several representatives of Les Républicains also applauded her remarks. In fact, there was an explosion of dismay and denunciation among conservatives immediately after Morano’s declarations. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Sarkozy’s second-in-command, asserted that France does not “operate on the ideological basis of apartheid,” while another conservative leader, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, affirmed that if Morano wants to run in December’s regional elections, she should do so as “spokesperson for the Ku Klux Klan.”
In light of the general dismay and disgust, Morano’s days as an L.R. candidate seemed numbered. In the days that followed the interview, when Morano reaffirmed her original remarks, Sarkozy seemed ready to sanction his close friend and replace her come the December elections. But will his readiness be translated into action? While furious in private over Morano’s declarations, Sarkozy has said little in public, apart from bland exhortations that his party’s members “watch their words.” (Belatedly, the L.R. announced that Morano, having refused to apologize for her declaration, would not be allowed to run in the December elections.)…
Such calls should set off fire alarms among French Jews, but there has been only a tweet or two. The day after Morano’s interview, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) noted on Twitter, “Stupidity does not have a color.” The organization has since been silent on the subject.
Here are some of the comments on Forward.com:
* I agree with “I am my brother and sisters keeper” but I have yet to find a Muslim organization in America that publicly condemns suicide bombings that have happened on Israeli busses, and in Israeli schools, marketplaces, restaurants, nightclubs, and supermarkets. They refuse to call Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups even though the U.S. government has designated them this way for the past twenty-five years.
You can be against the current Israeli government, the settlers and support a two State solution but supporting the murders of innocent Israeli men, women, and children and refusing to call them terrorism is something no one should accept. I would be much more tolerant and much more supportive of Muslims in America and in Europe if a major Muslim organization would stop either remaining silent or supporting the murder of innocent children in Israel.
They not only refuse to condemn the murder of innocent Israeli men, women, and children but are strangely silent against the thug in Syria who has used chemical weapons against his own people, killed more than 200,000 and made more than five million of them refugees, the indiscriminate bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, and the murder and imprisonment of thousands in Egypt. They seem to reserve their criticism for Israel and only Israel.
You want me, as a Jew, to support you and condemn discrimination against you in Europe, America and everywhere else in the world? How about you do the same for me?
* Jews Need to Emigrate to Israel To Avoid The Race/Religion War that’s brewing in Europe.
There, Fixed the title for you.
* Better idea, why not speed up the process of Jewish eradication favoured by so many Muslim and commit mass suicide (choice of death up to each individual, beheadings a little difficult to handle alone)?
* Muslims present a far greater threat to the Jews of France than any French conservative. Not only do they identify exclusively with the Palestinian cause, but they present a very visible opposition to the French concept of secularism.
