Posted on 04/04/2011 9:01:21 AM PDT by Ooh-Ah
Muslim groups in France have asked the Roman Catholic Church for permission to use its empty churches as a way to solve the traffic problems caused by thousands of Muslims who pray in the streets. The request, which has been variously described by French political commentators as "alarming," "audacious" and "unprecedented," is yet another example of the growing assertiveness of France's six million Muslims, who are transforming the country in ways unimaginable only a few years ago.
In a March 11 communiqué addressed to the Church of France, the National Federation of the Great Mosque of Paris, the Council of Democratic Muslims of France and a Muslim activist group called Collectif Banlieues Respect called on the Roman Catholic Church – in a spirit of inter-religious solidarity, of course – to make its empty churches available to Muslims for Friday prayers, so that Muslims do not have to "pray in the streets" and be "held hostage to politics."
Every Friday, thousands of Muslims in Paris and other French cities close off streets and sidewalks (and by extension, close down local businesses and trap non-Muslim residents in their homes and offices) to accommodate overflowing crowds for midday prayers. Some mosques have also begun broadcasting sermons and chants of "Allah Akbar" via loudspeakers in the streets.
The weekly spectacles, which have been documented by dozens of videos posted on Youtube.com (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), have provoked anger and disbelief. But despite many public complaints, local authorities have declined to intervene because they are afraid of sparking riots.
The issue of illegal street prayers was catapulted to the top of the French national political agenda in December 2010, when Marine Le Pen, the charismatic new leader of the far-right National Front party, denounced them as an "occupation without tanks or soldiers."
During a gathering in the east central French city of Lyon on December 10, Le Pen compared Muslims praying in the streets to Nazi occupation. She said: "For those who want to talk a lot about World War II, if it is about occupation, then we could also talk about it [Muslim prayers in the streets], because that is occupation of territory. It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of districts in which religious laws apply. It is an occupation. There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers but it is nevertheless an occupation and it weighs heavily on local residents."
Many French voters agree. In fact, the issue of Muslim street prayers – and the broader question of the role of Islam in French society – has become a major issue ahead of the 2012 presidential elections. According to a recent survey by Ifop for the France-Soir newspaper, nearly 40% of French voters agree with Len Pen's views that Muslim prayer in the streets resembles an occupation. Moreover, a new opinion poll published by Le Parisien newspaper on March 8 shows that voters view Le Pen, who has criss-crossed the country arguing that France has been invaded by Muslims and betrayed by its elite, as the candidate best suited to deal with the growing problem of runaway Muslim immigration.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity is at record lows just thirteen months before the first round of next year's presidential election, has been spooked by Le Pen's advance in the opinion polls. As a result, he now seems determined not to allow Le Pen to monopolize the issue of Islam in France. Sarkozy recently called Muslim prayers in the street "unacceptable" and said that the street cannot be allowed to become "an extension of the mosque." He also warned that the overflow of Muslim faithful on to the streets at prayer time when mosques are packed to capacity risks undermining the French secular tradition separating state and religion.
Sarkozy also denounced multiculturalism as a failure and said Muslims must assimilate into the French culture if they want to be welcomed in France. Joining other European leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who recently have spoken out against multiculturalism, Sarkozy declared in a live-broadcast interview with French Channel One television: "I do not want a society where communities coexist side by side … France will not welcome people who do not agree to melt into a single community. We have been too busy with the identity of those who arrived and not enough with the identity of the country that accepted them."
At the same time, Sarkozy's center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party plans to hold a "national identity debate" on Islam and secularism on April 5. The purpose of the debate is to clarify the rights and responsibilities of Islam in a secular French Republic.
Some French voters, who say Sarkozy's efforts are too little too late, have taken matters into their own hands. For example, a group calling for "resistance to the Islamization of France" recently used Facebook to advertise an anti-Muslim "giant cocktail party" at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. "Identity Block," as the group is known, received some 7,000 RSVPs to attend the so-called "pork sausage and booze" party on the Champs-Elysées. Islam forbids the consumption of pork and alcoholic beverages.
In no mood for compromise, France's most prominent Muslim leader has called for the number of mosques in the country to be doubled to 4,000. In a June 2010 interview with France-Soir, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grande Mosque of Paris and formerly president of the French Council for Muslims, said a major mosque-building program – courtesy of French taxpayers – would ease the "pressure, frustration and the sense of injustice" felt by many French Muslims. "Open a mosque and you close a prison," Boubakeur said. About 70% of all inmates in the French prison system are Muslim.
Meanwhile, the French Constitutional Court on March 10 struck down key aspects of a new law designed to crack down on Muslim-related urban violence. The court ruled that thirteen articles from security legislation passed by the Sarkozy government in February violated the French constitution. One of the articles removed by the court called for recent immigrants who attack police officers to be stripped of French citizenship.
Over the past several years, France has been the scene of many Muslim uprisings, usually accompanied by riots and car burnings. Large swaths of Muslim areas are now considered "no-go" zones by French police. At last count, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, ZUS), as they are euphemistically called. A complete list of the ZUS can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the ZUS, parts of France over which the French state has lost control.
Muslims in France Ask to Use Empty Churches .
Must need more TTC’s. (Terrorist Training Centers)
Right.
Release about 100 large hogs into the crowd. And the hogs should be wearing custom made t-shirts emblazoned with the legend: “I’m with Mohammed” and a large arrow pointing towards the pigs’ rear ends.
I’d be willing to pay about $25 to watch video footage of something like that on Pay-per-View!
If there are so many muslims doing this, I am sure they have enough money between them to actually build a building to pray in.
If France doesn’t get a grip on this their country is gone.
Perhaps they should start doing what pissed off muslims do and just start driving over people. Just have a bunch of folks just drive into these crowds full speed and keep going until they are through. Then turn around and go through again.
It’s a street after all. Not your own personal worship venue being done on purpose to show you can shut things down when you want to.
Hell make the drivers older so you can blame it on old people being confused. “Isn’t this Country Kitchen Buffet?”
I think the intent is that Catholics attend Mass on Saturday and Sunday, so why not let the Muslims use the churches on Fridays. That’s how it starts... then you need to get rid of the pesky images of Jesus, etc.
But I could be wrong.
You may have found the one animal they won’t engage in intercourse with. Of course i may be wrong.
Passive-aggressive Carpet Kissers are at it again.
First they clog the streets with their arses up in the air.
Then they ask to “occupy” Roman Catholic churches.
Can you imagine the vandalism inside those churches if the Muzziggers are allowed in?
It so frightened and disgusted people around the Western world, that they forever would be unable to properly defend their society from an invasion of immigrants, legal and illegal. The leaders of a society, whenever they look for a solution to a problem like the Muslims in France, cannot stomach the thought of sending them away. We no longer have the testicles to "ethnic cleanse" our countries. We see it as an evil thing, when in fact it is the very nature of mankind for thousands of years.
Now I am not talking of ridding our country, or another of people that fill a niche, or want to blend in. I am speaking of those that come here to "Balkanize" or to conquer from within. This is clearly what the Muslims want to do to the West, and on a different scale, what the Mexicans are doing to the Norte's. In both cases, the countries are unwilling to protect their society, in fear of being called racists, intolerant, fascist, nazis, or just plain evil.
In truth I submit, unless we are willing to keep a somewhat "melted pot" of a population, we too will be facing the kinds of demands France is dealing with now. If France really wanted to deal with their problem, they would simply deport the 6 million (weird how that nice round number is used isn't it?) Muslims, to the sands of Libya, and be done with it. Give them a WW I vintage weapon, some water and food rations, and tell them to fight their way to Mecca or something. It is better than just killing them in a war that needs to be fought, and will be sooner rather than later.
I plan on going to Spain for the running of the Bulls, then off the Grand Pair eee to watch the stampede of the Swine. Some Arkansas razorbacks, mature and with full tusks would be best.
The first Muslim nuclear armed country will be France.
Not Iran.
I agree...
Imho, the showdown is coming soon.
one fortunate thing about muslims is their comparative hostility to technology (almost as bad as some of our luddites). When we drop out of global affairs this may be the key advantage China has in regards to fighting them.
1. Mexico
2. France
Yes it did. I look for God’s purpose in current events, it helps give me perspective and keep me insane. With that in mind, the very purpose of The Holocaust was to allow the “leaven” to come in unhindered and be left in place. It is the only way the West can be destroyed, the same way Rome was, from within.
Heck, we have a Gernal saying a pastor can’t burn a quran in Florida.
We don’t have much room to gloat.
Shucks Christian churches here are being big hearted and renting out their churches to Muslims already. Plate passing is so passé.
France? What about us, we better wake up, this country is right behind them.
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