...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
From the Telegraph, via Aaron's cc:
The gulf between British and French treatment of preachers of hatred and violence was thrown sharply into focus yesterday when France announced the summary expulsion of a dozen Islamists between now and the end of August.The doctrine of pre-emption at work in France? Interesting.A tough new anti-terrorism package was unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and a popular centre-Right politician.
His proposals reflect French determination to act swiftly against extremists in defiance of the human rights lobby, which is noticeably less vocal in France than in Britain.
Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to their countries of origin, most commonly in France's case to its former north African colonies.
Mr Sarkozy also revealed that as many as 12 French mosques associated with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance. Imams indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies.
Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from deportation. Mr Sarkozy said he will reactivate measures, 'already available in our penal code but simply not used', to strip undesirables of their adopted nationality. 'We have to act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded,' Mr Sarkozy told the French daily Le Parisien.
More: Here's another foreign terrorism related story from the BBC:
Russia's defence chief has barred the ministry from contact with ABC TV after the US network's interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.Beautiful.Sergei Ivanov said the ministry considered ABC 'persona non grata' following Thursday's broadcast.
The warlord has claimed the 2004 raid on a school in Beslan. In the interview he admitted he was a terrorist, but said the Russians were terrorists too.
Russia's most wanted man also said he was plotting more attacks.
'Today I have given the order to the head of the press service that not one serviceman of the defence ministry should have contact with the American television channel ABC,' Mr Ivanov said in televised comments.
'We will continue to act openly with the press, but this channel will not be invited to the defence ministry and no interviews will ever be given to it,' he said.
'This channel is now persona non grata for the defence ministry and is an outcast.'
The interview conducted by Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky was recorded at the warlord's hideout in Chechnya.Actually, i think "journalists" should be encouraged to interview terrorists, but only if they swallow a satellite tracking device first. Then if some bombs happen to fall during the interview, oh well, no big loss.Russia is offering $10m (£6m) for the capture of the warlord, whom it accuses of several major attacks.
More than 320 people - around half of them children - were killed at the school in Beslan last September.
My understanding is that French law requires that all sermons in all faiths have to be in French.
I'm usually opposed to the French attitudes about their language, believing that the sooner French joins Latin as a dead language for scholars no longer spoken will improve the planet. However, the notion of requiring sermons be in the local vernacular so an outsider could audit has some merit. I'd have no problem with an outsider listening in on my rabbi's sermons. Any congregation that WOULD have a problem should be treated as suspect.
Anyway, thanks for the shout-out.
Posted by: Aaron's cc: on Jul. 31, 2005Lest you doubt the French nature, revisit "The Sorrow & The Pity". There is no reason for the French to feel more affection for the Arab than the Jew. They just need a little catalyst to start dropping heads into baskets, or shipping Jews to the gas chambers, or whatever this age will bring to their emotionally fueled hatreds.
Posted by: Casca on Jul. 31, 2005Since Napoleon, the French haven't had cojones. Not a Charles Martel left among them.
Pity that the delicious Sabine Herald doesn't have more of a following.
Posted by: Aaron's cc: on Jul. 31, 2005Aaron, to give credit where it is due, The French didn't go downhill untill after world war one. That war killed off all the good sperm and left only the cowards, pimps, and politicians to reproduce.
Posted by: Kyle on Jul. 31, 2005World War I was a terrible experience for France, with almost an entire generation killed. At St-Cyr, the French military academy, the *entire* class of 1914 was killed.
Although the fight put up by the French Army in 1940 was not equivalent to what they did in 1914-1918, it wasn't as trivial as it's been made out to be, either. French casualties (killed) in that was were on the order of 100,000.
Posted by: David Foster on Jul. 31, 2005Yes, and those left alive about nine to one were Nazi collaborators. The myth of WWII is that there was a massive French resistance. The French rounded up the French Jews and sent them to the death camps. The Nazis had a willing partner.
Posted by: Casca on Jul. 31, 2005Indeed: Vichy France was far more cooperative in that respect that Nazi Germany's nominally "equal" ally, Italy. Mussolini was a thug, but he had never been particularly anti-Semitic, and until his senior partner in the Axis started making demands, Italian Jews had originally been allowed to become members of the Fascist Party and rise in its ranks on an (at least theoretically) equal footing.
Posted by: Dave J on Jul. 31, 2005but only if they swallow a satellite tracking device first
FWIW the so-called journalist who conducted the interview offered to do just that to the russian defense ministry. or so he said in an after interview review.
also, i did not find the interview as unsettling as ted koppel's lecture on the first ammendment, immediately after a letter from the kremlin was read on air.
it would be best if the U.S. followed the russian lead. imo