Posted on 05/12/2005 12:57:48 PM PDT by CHARLITE
AN OFFICIAL REPORT DEALING WITH religious expression in French schools has become a must read for anyone interested in the Islamization of France. Written under the auspices of the top national education official, Jean-Pierre Obin, the report was not initially released by the Ministry of Education. But it was leaked on the Internet in March and now can be found in its entirety at www.proche-orient.info and other websites.
The 37-page report is the product of a study carried out between October 2003 and May 2004 by a team of 10 inspectors, including Obin. In addition to examining the recent literature on religion and schools in France, they visited 61 academic and vocational high schools in 24 départements, chosen not as a cross-section of public schools, but rather as schools typical of those where religious expression has become a problem because of the high concentration of ethnic and religious minorities. Many are located in ethnically segregated neighborhoods now often referred to, the report says, "by analogy with the United States, as 'ghettos.'"
In each school, inspectors interviewed the management team, staff, and teachers, as well as lay people from the community, including parents, social workers, and elected officials. In addition, regional education officials were asked to submit accounts of their experiences in primary schools.
Amid much diversity--some of the schools were rural, some urban; some had fairly homogeneous student populations, others immigrants from many different countries--the inspectors report two consistent findings: a marked increase in religious expression, especially Muslim expression, in schools; and denial on the part of officials at all levels--from the classroom, to the principal's office, to the regional administration--that this phenomenon is occurring.
The researchers began by studying the neighborhoods surrounding the schools. Mostly, these were depressed areas abandoned by anyone with a secure income. The report describes the flight of "French" residents and "European" shops--sometimes after they have been the targets of violence--in tandem with the arrival of immigrants and the collapse of real estate values.
Scores of informants told the Obin team that these neighborhoods were undergoing a "rapid and recent swing" toward Islamization, thanks to the growing influence of religious activists. These young men, intense and highly intellectual in their piety, are sometimes former residents of the neighborhood who have been to prison, where they were converted to Islam. More often, however, they are educated men with degrees from universities in France, North Africa, or the Middle East. They have come to be known as "bearded ones" (distinctive beards are a marker of Muslim purists and extremists--think of bin Laden) or "big brothers" (a name evocative of the worldwide jihadist movement's Muslim Brotherhood), and they offer young people a proud identity--Muslim--in place of the dismal identity of unassimilated immigrant.
The biggest social change entailed by this Islamization, Obin reports, is a deterioration in the position of females. Teenage girls are forbidden to play sports and are constantly watched by an informal religious police made up of young men, sometimes their own younger brothers. Makeup, skirts, and form-fitting dresses are forbidden; dark, loose trousers are the strongly recommended attire. To go to the blackboard in front of a class, some Muslim girls put on long coats. Often, they are forced to wear the headscarf, or hijab, and forbidden to frequent coed movie theaters, community centers, and gyms, or even to go out at all on weekends. Lots of young women were afraid to tell the Obin team what punishments are in store for them if they disobey. Not only female students but also female teachers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are frequently subjected to sexist remarks by male teenagers.
In primary schools, the report cites instances of first grade boys' refusing to participate in coed activities and Muslim children's refusing to sing, dance, or draw a face. In one school, restrooms were segregated: some for Muslim students and some for "French." Some lunchrooms were segregated, by section or table. Some students required halal meat; at one school, the principal provided only halal meat for everyone.
With Muslim proselytizing on the rise, the report states that students are under pressure to observe Ramadan, the annual month during which Muslims fast during the day. In some high schools, it is simply impossible for Muslim kids not to join in, whether they like it or not. Obin cites one student who tried to commit suicide because of intimidation and threats from other kids over this issue. Obin also emphasizes that many conversions to Islam are taking place under duress.
Inevitably, the report records rampant "Judeophobia," to use the term in vogue in France. Among even the youngest students, the term "Jew" has become the all-purpose insult. Obin deplores the fact that principals and teachers do not strenuously object to this, treating it simply as part of the youth culture. Even more serious is the increase in assaults on Jews or those presumed to be Jewish. Usually the assailants are Muslim students. Sometimes the victims are, too: One Turkish high-school girl was relentlessly harassed and bullied at school because her country is an ally of Israel. The section of the report on anti-Semitism winds up with this sad conclusion: In France today, Jewish kids are not welcome at every school. Many are forced to switch schools or even conceal their identity to escape anti-Semitism.
According to the report, Muslim students perceive a large gap between the French and themselves. Even though most of the Muslim kids are actually French citizens, they see themselves as Muslims first, and more and more of them hail Osama bin Laden as their hero. In their eyes, he represents a victorious Islam triumphing over the West.
FINALLY, THE REPORT DISCUSSES a host of difficulties teachers encounter in dealing with specific subjects in the classroom. Most Muslim kids refuse to participate in sports or swimming, the girls out of modesty, the boys because they do not want to swim in "girls' water" or "non-Muslim water." When it comes to literature, French philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau are very often boycotted because of their supposed Islamophobia. Molière, the father of French satiric comedy, is among the writers most often boycotted.
As for history, Muslim students object to its Judeo-Christian bias and blatant falsehood. They loudly protest the Crusades, and commonly deny the Holocaust. Under the circumstances, many teachers censor their own material, often skipping entire topics, like the history of Israel or of Christianity. The report cites one teacher who keeps a Koran on his desk for reference whenever a thorny issue arises. It cites Muslim students who refuse to use the plus sign in mathematics because it looks like a cross. Field trips, especially to churches, cathedrals, and monasteries, are boycotted.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, these pathologies are now present across France. Muslim "ghettos" are found not only in the suburbs of major cities but in towns and villages as well. Obin describes them as islands of counterculture, sealed off and opposed to modern democratic society.
Summing up, Obin explains his disturbing findings as the result primarily of indoctrination orchestrated over years by international Muslim organizations. From an early age, students are taught what to think, what to believe, and to regard their school teachers as liars. The goal of the radical groups seeking to segregate Muslim communities and denouncing integration as oppression, Obin writes, is to take the Muslim residents of France out of the French nation and make them think of themselves as part of the international Muslim community.
In a particularly interesting observation, Obin notes that it is the schools that have reached accommodations with the extremists that are most plagued by violence against girls, Jews, and teachers. Schools that refuse to tolerate the intolerable have coped much better with the problems described in the report. As a result, Obin calls for a policy of no compromise with Islamist demands.
Still unclear is how French educators can be expected to hang tough while their government refuses to own up to the problem--as demonstrated by its failure to make public the Obin report. With the Muslim share of the French population already over 10 percent and growing, the schools are only the tip of the iceberg.
Olivier Guitta is a freelance writer specializing in the Middle East and Europe.
"It will end like in Kosovo - the murder and expulsion of all non muslims ..."
I will go you one better: it is starting like Kosovo.
When a critical mass of Muslims gather, their young men begin harassment of non-Muslim boys in school, harassment and rape of the girls with the result that non-Muslims move away.
"The report describes the flight of "French" residents and "European" shops--sometimes after they have been the targets of violence". This follows the Kosovo pattern as well - raids on farms, attacks on non-Muslim businesses.
The next phase will be when the Muslims take over the local police and courts. Non-Muslims then will have their complaints ignored when they become victims of harassment, beatings, raids, and rapes. There may not be Sharia in law, but will be in effect.
If any one tries to stop this process, the result will be a civil war between the Muslims and the government -- a war that Political Correctness will not allow the government to win if they have the guts to start it.
It is a VERY effective long term strategy.
As I noted before, we had such a war in Utah in the late 1800s; it took the troops of the Federal Government occupying and arresting every adult male in the Utah Territory for the Prophet of the Mormons to have a revelation that polygamy was no longer required by G-d.
The Europeans may not get the guts to do the equivalent until it is too late.
I can't ever forget a published report of a statement made by the Imam of the largest mosque in Denmark - three years ago. He said, "Within five years, all of Denmark will be under Sharia law."
This already seems to be coming true. And the locals seem apathetic to this apparent coup. It's a bloodless (so far) revolution, an almost complete coup d'etat, because so many Europeans in power seem sympathetic to the immigrants on welfare, more than they are of their own taxpaying constituents. Amazing.
Maybe, with a 12% unemployment rate in "old Europe," they'll get up to 15% and then have a war against the Muslim invaders, so that they can at last have full employment. The trouble with that scenario is that most of the unemployed are newly-arrived islamists.
Right, and they love their freebie status. Where else can you go and get free care and assistance, not have to work and have plenty of time on your hands to conspire against your hosts? And the hosts are bending over backwards to meet their every need and whim. Yet, the Europeans seem to think that it isn't some sort of invasion or takeover. It's a revolution in all but name, and it's invited and welcomed by the people they're trying to conquer. It must almost be a hollow victory, to take over so easily, without the war that jihad often implies. The old Europe money in power are selling out Europe and the rest of the Europeans just to keep their power and money and few seem to care.
I've wanted to visit France for a very long time now, at least 15-20 years since I was in school, and now I fear, and I've said it before, that I'd better hurry if I want to see vineyards and Cathedrals and art and be able to travel freely without a burqa or male relative.
I'm curious, your son-in-law seems to have a handle on what's going on, and hopefully he is as concerned as we are, but I wonder do others like him care as well? It seems that those who do care out loud are punished, like Bardot, but it's hard to get an idea of how many regular Europeans care that there seems to be a coup d'etat going on, one that will ultimately change everything if allowed to go to it's intended conclusion.
Brilliant observation. Hitler and Goerring only wanted to steal the art - you're right the islamofascists will want to destroy it.
They'd better rethink Spain's brilliance of the late 15th century before they go down the drain with their new "enlightenment."
Good comments, Bill. Thanks!
Char :)
Charles "The Hammer" Martel is spinning in his grave...
This is already a fact of life in Holland. My son-in-law (who is a FReeper going by the name "freeholland") told me several years ago that only Muslims can get jobs as police in Holland now, and when non-Muslim Dutch citizens call the police during assaults, robberies, they take their time arriving, and once there, they just stand around until the Muslim criminals have completed the crime and disappeared.
My son-in-law's two brothers run a family restaurant in Amsterdam. For the past 3 years, they've been "visited" by Muslim gangs in the neighborhood in precisely the same way as the Chicago (and NYC) mob would "visit" businesses....to collect "protection money." It raises the cost of doing business. The gangs appear whenever they feel so inclined. They take what they want from the restaurant's cash register and they leave.
It is appalling, but the Dutch gov't invited these people into Holland, starting 40 years ago. The original laborers were mostly from Turkey, but over the decades they have come more and more from north Africa and the middle east and have begun to swarm Dutch society and national life like the worst plague of locusts ever to hit Salt Lake City. The cold blooded, senseless murder of Theo Van Gogh might be the beginning of a frightful trend, exactly as you describe, Mack.
Thanks for your comments. You're absolutely right in what you foresee.
Substitute Europeans with Americans and jihad with LaRaza, and we have the same thing here, non? This is Marxism I being spread right here.........by both parties.
FMCDH(BITS)
Here. Haven't you heard us screaming?
Oh, lol, too true. I was trying to be rhetorical, (but am so torqued by the thing I guess I missed my mark ;-),) as the French notoriously open their doors and throw out the welcome mat and gift basket to those who wish them harm. Yeah, we are just a stones throw away from some of these same problems, if they aren't already problems in localized areas. We are a bit bigger than France. Yeah, like Bardot and others, some of us are screaming, to deaf ears. Sigh.
Which country are you referring to? It certainly could be the US.
Yeah, we are just a step or 2 behind. Happily sliding behind them on that spiral downward. And some would argue that we could have jihad in places as well. No doubt socialism is becoming more and more prevalent in our country, too. I am just beyond words as to why the French are so blind and accepting of those who hate them, I was attempting to be rhetorical, but fell short. Yes, it's clear 'we' (pushed by greedy people in power) have the same issues here, maybe not so wide spread yet, or advanced, or well accepted, and also falling on deaf ears. Marxism and socialism are fast replacing what our forefathers envisioned, visiting any college campus, happily run by a majority of lefties, illustrates that point.
Western civilization is finished. America will be the last to fall - but fall we will. So you are right saying that no one will defend Europe. In fact, I predict wholesale slaughter of anyone who doesn't join the Islamic religion in the whole of Europe. Hope the French are happy. The idiots allowed illegal immigration and lost their country. America has allowed illegal immigration and are in the process of losing ours.
I hope we open our eyes and see what is coming our way and take steps to prevent it, but I am not optimistic.
Thanks for posting.
Western civ ping
A Dutch friend who has been living in the US for 30 years recently returned to Holland to visit relatives. She said that the moment she stepped off the plane, she thought she was in the Middle East.
The cancer of Islam has metastasized thoughout Europe. It is only a matter time for the rest of the civilized world unless decisive action is taken to eradicate Islam. Islam is NOT a religion. It is a militant movement to take over the world.
"Europe is missing religion and Islam is missing enlightenment, is it possible that the combination will improve both?"
When has Islam ever improved anything. The only thing that I can think of is that they encourage muslims to become martyrs so that makes a few less muslims that will need to be killed to save the civilized world. Unfortunately, innocents often die at the hands of martyrs (murderers).
Don't we ever learn?
The ONLY WAY to fight Islam is to ban it.
We must not tolerate it. We must not negotiate with it. Why? Because their mission is to make Islam the only allowable lifestyle on the planet. They want to wipe us out.
Every civilized country must recognise that Islam is not a religion, but a seditious totalitarian political system which seeks to replace the constitution of every country with the Koran. They are nazis infiltrating our free societies masquerading as a religion.
As Oriana Fallaci said, they breed like rats making children at the rate of 3.8 times the native population, and eat up Europe from the inside. Then they will destroy all the wonderful art and culture of the Enlightenment.
Europeans, Do Something!!
Not true, they know what they are doing. The left has been hand in hand with Islam for much of the last century and all of this. Hitler, the National Socialists Worker's Party, enjoyed the company of his fascist Muslims. The left is collectivist. And, so are the Muslims.
The world has two poles. One where people who value themselves live their lives as individuals. The other where people who feel inadequate come together under the pretense that someone will lead and take care of them. The collectivists are made up of two groups, the large dopey (literally) followers and the few scheming con artist leaders -- Clinton, Sharpton, Jackson, and so on.
Islam and the left have the same mode of operation. The leaders are usually little more than street corner gangsters looking for power from a mob. The Islamics have used this style since its start. They employ small bands of thugs who lead small street corner gang style mobs. It works against peaceful people not organized.
The left does the same thing. As a European invention, the left has been more effective at this game. They feel more confident that after they get the chains on a society, they can control the Muslims. They find their mobs in universities, union halls, and bureaucracies. Many of the so called secular left would just as soon run a mob with a rag wrapped around their head just to get control.
I fear that New Europe will be driven to reorganize in a more effective political-military structure. One option is a American style of government. I don't think they will adopt such. The other is a fascist style. I mean fascist in the original sense, a strong paternal leader. It will take such to get the job done of beating back Islam by necessarily killing a lot of them. Europe has done so in the past. I see no reason why the can't again.
The strength that Islam holds against societies not organized for war is the relentless attacks of small teams of gangsters. When they come up against an organized, disciplined army led by a strong leader, they get slaughtered. Their strength then becomes their weakness.
Alas, this army will have to kill a lot of them. Maybe, this time the conquering Infidels can liberate Mecca, well better yet, flatten it.
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