French far-right hopeful Marine Le Pen hit out at “Islamic fundamentalism” on Israeli radio Wednesday after commentators initially blamed European anti-Semitism for deadly shootings that killed seven people, four at a Jewish school.
Category Archives: France
France: referee refused to officiate women’s football match because some players wore headscarves
A referee on Sunday refused to officiate a French women’s football match, when players for one of the teams took the pitch wearing Muslim headscarves, the club involved said.
The official sent a report to the Languedoc-Roussillon league in the south of the country about the incident involving players from Petit-Bard Montpellier, who had been due to play Narbonne in the regional promotion tie.
The league must now decide whether to order the match to be replayed or to award a win to Narbonne.
The two teams played a friendly match instead, with Narbonne winning 7-6.
Football’s world governing body FIFA banned players from wearing the Islamic headscarf in 2007, claiming it is unsafe.
But football federations and even the United Nations have urged FIFA to lift the ban, maintaining that concerns about safety are baseless and that it discriminates against Muslim players, particularly when no such restrictions apply in other sports.
Iran’s women’s team last year forfeited a 2012 Olympic qualifier because players wouldn’t play without wearing hijabs.
France’s middle class Muslims hit back at Nicolas Sarkozy’s divisive poll tactics
Kim Willsher reports from Paris.
French PM scrambles to defuse halal-kosher row
France’s prime minister told Jewish leaders on Wednesday he had not meant to stigmatise their community when he urged them to rethink ancient dietary laws, as he strove to defuse a fractious row about minorities in the run up to a presidential election.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon caused an uproar on Tuesday when he said the Jewish and Muslim “ancestral traditions” of ritual slaughter were outdated and unjustified. It was the latest in a series of divisive comments by politicians about the religious practices of France’s ethnic minorities, seen as a bid to attract right-wing voters ahead of a two-round election in April and May.
Brigitte Bardot: Loves dogs, hates Muslims
Once upon a time, she was France’s most alluring actress and a source of Gallic pride. Today, she’s deemed a pesky old bag and an embarrassment to her fellow countrymen. One thing’s for sure – Brigitte Bardot is still a great source of entertainment.
At 22 she was the darling of France, a talented and beautiful actress who nobody could keep their eyes off. At 77, she’s like that racist old neighbour that you avoid in the street – the one that values puppies over asylum seekers.
On Monday, Bardot penned a letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, accusing him of letting down the animal world by not banning halal slaughterhouses. “It’s because of you that throat-slitting has become the norm in France,” she griped.
Strangely enough, Sarkozy’s pals had just spent the previous few days trying to woo animal rights sympathisers (read Muslim-hating-intolerants) with talk of modernising the “medieval” practice.
But crafty old Bardot saw straight through them. She knows all too well that the only politician who really, truly hates Muslims enough to put animal rights first, is far-right darling Marine Le Pen (MLP). She, of course, would have no qualms in banning halal abattoirs in France. After all, the country’s five-million Muslims rely on them. No more halal… no more Muslims? And it would all be done in the name of animal rights, naturally.
Muslim and Jewish organisations unite to condemn French PM’s call to scrap halal and kosher slaughter
France’s Jews and Muslims united Tuesday to complain they were being used as pawns in a presidential election increasingly dominated by bitter disputes over national identity and ritual slaughter.
“France’s problems are so major, as we are in a period of crisis, so how can the issue of kosher meat and halal meat be a major problem for France?” asked an exasperated Grand Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim.
For its part, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) slammed what it said was the use of Muslims as “scapegoats” in the election campaign in which halal slaughter of animals has become a hot-button issue.
French PM calls on Muslims and Jews to renounce halal and kosher slaughter
France’s prime minister urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon made the suggestion after Sarkozy called at the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws and his allies warned immigrants might impose halal meat on French schoolchildren.
Fillon and other conservative leaders linked this tough stand on ritually prepared meat to issues such as immigration and French identity that the far-right National Front uses to tap into resentment against Europe’s largest Muslim minority.
Sarkozy courts French far-right talking about immigration, halal meat, Christian roots
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has marked a rightward shift in his re-election campaign, pledging to cut the number of immigrants and calling for clear labelling of halal meat in a bid to entice voters away from the National Front.
Speaking to thousands of flag-waving supporters at a rally in the western city of Bordeaux, Sarkozy vowed to defend secular values in France – which has Europe’s largest Muslim minority – and to send a tough message on law and order if he wins a fresh five-year term in a two-round election in April and May.
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant under fire for racism
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, a hardliner close to President Nicolas Sarkozy, came under fire again Saturday for the second time in a month for comments deemed racist by liberals.
At a meeting late Friday in support of Sarkozy’s bid for a new term as president, Gueant condemned proposals by the president’s socialist opponent Francois Hollande to give the vote in local elections to immigrants.
“We don’t want foreign town councillors making halal food obligatory in canteen meals …. or regulating mixed bathing in swimming pools,” Gueant told an audience near Nancy in eastern France.
Fascist graffiti and ‘Stop Islamisation’ sticker on French mosque
A swastika, Nazi symbols and an Islamophobic sticker were found on Sunday morning on the wall of the mosque in Escaudain, in northern France, AFP reports. The discovery was made by children who had come to take part in activities during school holidays.
According to spokesperson Soufiane Iquioussen, the mosque had been desecrated with graffiti in 2004 and shots were fired at the building.