Far-right 'charity' that leaves Muslims hungry

The Scotsman ^ | January 17, 2006 | Susan Bell

[Paul Ross]

Tue 17 Jan 2006

Far-right 'charity' that leaves Muslims hungry

SUSAN BELL
IN PARIS

FAR-right groups in France are distributing ham sandwiches and pork soup to homeless people in an attempt to discriminate against Muslims and Jews, forbidden to eat pork products.

Food hand-outs, which have already taken place in Paris, Nice and Nantes, and in Brussels and Charleroi in Belgium, have now spread to the eastern French city of Strasboug.

At the weekend, Strasbourg's prefect banned the extreme right association Solidarité Alsacienne from distributing its soupe au cochon (pig soup) to poor and homeless people in the city centre.

On Saturday, police intervened to close the soup kitchen after Solidarité Alsacienne defied the ban and began distributing food in one of Strasbourg's main squares.

Chantal Spieler, Solidarité Alsacienne's president, was escorted to police headquarters and given a formal warning before being joined by her husband, Robert Spieler, a former MP for Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front party.

Mr Spieler denounced "a totalitarian regime" where soon "they'll be banning salami".

He said: "Pork is a European symbol, whether we like it or not. The day when there are laws forbidding the distribution of pork in Alsace I believe there will be a lot of us who will leave France and take refuge in a country where there is still a certain culinary freedom." His wife said she would appeal against the prefect's decision.

"Pork is part of our culinary culture and we are offering the soup to everyone, so there is nothing discriminatory about it," she said.

However, few accept Solidarité Alsacienne's protests that it is a victim of the infringement of civil liberties. The association is close to Le Bloc Identitaire, an extreme-right umbrella group led by Fabrice Robert, a former leader of Unité Radicale, a neo-Nazi cell which broke up in 2002 after one its members attempted to assassinate the president, Jacques Chirac.

Soulidarieta, an extreme-right group based in Nice, which is also a Bloc Identitaire member, provoked outrage over Christmas when it began distributing soup made with pork once a week to homeless and poor people in the south-eastern city's port area.

Its operation drew as many protesters as homeless people. They accused the group of blatant discrimination by offering pork soup only, deliberately to exclude poor Muslims.

With protesters denouncing the practice as racist, the local town hall and the prefect's office in Nice claimed they were powerless to intervene as the group had done nothing illegal.

The group's head, Dominique Lescure, said pork was a traditional part of French cuisine. He did admit, however, wanting to serve the soup to his "compatriots and European homeless people".

The philosophy behind Soulidarieta, which means solidarity in the local dialect, is made clear in the association's literature, in which it claims: "Our people face being submerged by a rising black demographic tide," and announces "the launch of a voluntary social and political action in favour of our most deprived blood brothers".

The group's slogans call for "solidarity with our European brothers", and "Our own kind first before others".

Pierre Levy of the Council Representing Jewish Institutions in France, who attended the first distribution of pork soup last month, denounced Bloc Identitaire's operations as "using human misery to establish ethnic separation".

[phil1750]

Ham Soup

8 cups water 1 pound Great Northern beans or navy beans 2 cups cubed ham 1 ham bone or ham hock, optional 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste 1 bay leaf 1 carrot, chopped 1 rib celery, chopped or sliced thinly 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

[cake_crumb]

This is just....now charities are banned from serving pork to people who don't have to eat it if they don't want to? I thought France HAD no hungry or homeless people. Chirac's turned France into Iraq. Amazing.

[whd23]

[hoosierboy]

I can tell you jewish charities will always take care of their own. Just like churches distribute funds to their parishoners. I don't see it being offensive to jews. Now if the muslims are offended then the saudis need to take care and help out their people. If there are hungry muslims then their fellow muslims need to step up.

[standingfirm]

MMM, sounds good!

HAM SANDWICH:

2 THICK SLICES WHOLE WHEAT BREAD - PREFERABLY TOASTED
LOTS OF THIN, SHAVED SMOKED HAM
SWISS CHEESE SLICE
LETTUCE
TOMATO
PICKLE
MAYO AND MUSTARD

ENJOY WITH A CHILLED BEER

[Restorer]

Sounds good. I like it made with several varieties of beans, myself.

[VeniVidiVici]

This story is so like a month ago.

Why is the Scotsman choosing only to report it now? There must be an agenda/reason behind it.

[RouxStir]

"2. This is religious discrimination, not racism."

Sorry but this is not discrimination. Muslims are free to eat pork if they wish. There is nothing biologically wrong with eating pork. If they are hungry and choose not to eat pork, then they can starve. Besides, muslims are only there as part of islam's terrorist takeover of Europe. So to cave in to their demands would just be helping them along in their destruction of civilized society.

[Restorer]

If the group had randomly selected pork soup to feed the poor, with no political intent, you might be right.

In this case, the in your Muslim (and perhaps Jewish) face angle is the whole point of the exercise. Which I can sympathize with to a certain extent.

There is no real intent here to provide services to poor people. The purpose is political theatre aimed at two religious minority groups.

[fmonkey]

People, poor or not, are used as props for political messages all the time. This time the message ended up feeding at least a few hungry people.

I guess what I'm saying is that the people that are protesting are morons. If you feel passionately about it enough to go stand around and wave signs, the least you could do is bring some pork-free leftovers for a hungry Muslim / Jew.

The bad people in this story aren't the people with a political view, misguided or not, that use that view in a positive way. The bad guys are the ones with a political view that are just standing around griping about everyone else's political views without doing anything constructive.

[Atlantic Bridge]

What about real French (Frog) cuisine??!

FROGS'S LEGS

You need:

15 Frog's legs, flour, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, parsley

Take the legs and turn them in the flour. Then you can sauté them in the oil over 10 minutes. Finally put the parsley with the garlic into the pan and flavor it with salt and pepper.

Maybe you guys do not believe it, but it tastes delicious. I say that as a neutral German that is not involved in the heavy French bashing in FR. :-)

It is to be served with a good Pinot Noir from the Alsace and some real French bread (PLEASE not your American bubble gum bread! - Urragh!).

The thing is that this meal would be probably too expensive for homeless and unemployed people.... Therefore - another real French dish:

Escargots.

Here are two snails being involved in a typical French engagement. :-)

If someone needs a recipe - I can help out. Although I grew up in southern Germany we had a French nanny that made really yummy escargots (We collected them by ourselves in the forrest).

The funny thing: To my knowlege those real French dishes are absolutely not haram for Muslims (something like non-kosher to the Jews). Therefore Solidarité Alsacienne doesn't have to bother about their muslim compatriots if they take this into their meal offer. Furthermore they can send their guests collecting some snails in the forrest. This is a cheap way to get something to eat and it gives dignity to those who are in need.

[Atlantic Bridge]

Besides, muslims are only there as part of islam's terrorist takeover of Europe.

All this "Eurabia" propaganda is BS. It is correct that we Europeans have a problem with young muslims on our continent since they are usually undereducated and unemployed. This is the reason why they get aggressive - just as some minorities in the US (do you remember the Los Angeles riots in 1992?). But there is one thing for sure: They will not take over the power here. I.e. Most Turks in Germany are assimilated, peaceful and decent people. I employ some in my own business and I know what I am talking about. The much more fanatic Islamiacs come usually from northern Africa or Pakistan. Their part in our German populace is nearly zero. That does not mean that we have to ignore the problem but we should get the right dimensions.

Even in France or in the UK where the problems with muslims are much more severe, there is no sign that they would ever have the chance to take over the power. The problem is not religious, it is social. Quite a big part of those young rioters in France are usually that dumb that they left school as illiterates. In fact they do not have the intellectual potential to move anything in politics or economy. Therefore they never gain any power. They can torch some cars but they can not turn France into a muslim caliphathe.

You Americans have the same problem we have in Europe: Not every proposition in the media is the truth. You can believe into my point of view since I live not that far away from Strasbourg, the town (with a big muslim community) this article is about.

[XJarhead]

Thanks for your input. And I think it is important to point out that different countries in Europe have done a better/worse job of assimilating their immigrants.

Most of us here view this as a long-term problem for Europe rather than a short-term one. What stunned me about the French riots wasn't that there were 1000 cars being burned per night, but that this was considered bad because on the average night, "only" 100 cars would get burned. I mean, we had a riot in another city in my state earlier this year in which 2 cars were burned, and it made national news. But in France, that's only 2% of the nightly average. That's stunning to me, and I think to many of us in the States. Per capita, that's 500 cars being burned every night in the U.S. I mean, wow.

I don't doubt your word that more secular Turks integrate well. But something is seriously wrong in a place like France where that level of lawlessness is considered normal. And we wonder what its going to be like there in 30 years given the demographic shifts.

[Atlantic Bridge]

But something is seriously wrong in a place like France where that level of lawlessness is considered normal. And we wonder what its going to be like there in 30 years given the demographic shifts.

Could be my words. It is unbelievable that the French police is tolerating i.e. the rapes and the crimes in the Banlieues. This is one of the reasons why the situation got that much out of control. We need hard punishment and motivated policemen in those areas. This would help. Furthermore those guys need work and something positive to live for.

In Germany the problems are not that severe since most muslim families are quite conservative in a positive way. The honour of the family is everything and criminal kids are a big shame. There is a lot of social pressure to behave like a civilized person - espechially in the rural areas. This is changing of course in our big towns like Berlin or Hamburg but in general it is the reality.

What stunned me about the French riots wasn't that there were 1000 cars being burned per night, but that this was considered bad because on the average night, "only" 100 cars would get burned. I mean, we had a riot in another city in my state earlier this year in which 2 cars were burned, and it made national news. But in France, that's only 2% of the nightly average.

This is correct. But if you take the US-riots around the Rodney King affair in 1992 i.e. then you had 54 killed persons, a few thousands injured persons and a damage around one billion US$. The good news for Europe: In Paris nobody died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots

I believe that the US and Europe are not that different in this point of view.

[Jhohanna]

I can't *wait* to see how funny they make the film! This is one of my favorite books *ever* of my childhood!

[XJarhead]

Could be my words. It is unbelievable that the French police is tolerating i.e. the rapes and the crimes in the Banlieues. This is one of the reasons why the situation got that much out of control. We need hard punishment and motivated policemen in those areas.

That's another thing that completely stunned us over here -- that those riots went on for weeks, with an entire year's worth of car burnings behind them, and the reaction from the authorities was basically nothing. They seemed afraid to try to restore order, which is one of the things that make us wonder how much control they really have.

And on a related point, what about the French citizenry? I don't know about Germany, but in this country, if you had groups like that invading other neighborhoods, intimidating peaceful citizens and destroying property, they'd find themselves met by some locals who wouldn't back down. Just from where we were, it seemed like the entire French people just cowered during this whole thing. I couldn't imagine that happening here. We'd fight.

But if you take the US-riots around the Rodney King affair in 1992 i.e. then you had 54 killed persons, a few thousands injured persons and a damage around one billion US$.

Yes, but I'd much rather be in our shoes than those of the French. We had one riot that was suppressed by force. The police reacted properly. And average citizens also stepped up. When the rioters started heading into Korean neighborhoods, Korean shopkeepers barracaded their streets, climbed on their roofs with weapons, and defendent their property. Same thing in the Mexican neighborhoods, and the Anglo areas. And even some black shopkeepers started resisting as well.

The overall message sent was that we will not tolerate lawlessness and wanton violence. Peaceful citizens should not have to put up with that. But in France, what was the message? Riot, and if you're persistent enough, you'll get what you want, and nobody really will fight back. That's just very hard for us to grasp.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that Germany is doing a better job of assimilation. We actually do a very good job of that over here too, which is one reason I think terrorists haven't been able to pull of another attack. Most moslems here are decent, law abiding people who just want to raise families in peace.

[Atlantic Bridge]

And on a related point, what about the French citizenry? I don't know about Germany, but in this country, if you had groups like that invading other neighborhoods, intimidating peaceful citizens and destroying property, they'd find themselves met by some locals who wouldn't back down. Just from where we were, it seemed like the entire French people just cowered during this whole thing. I couldn't imagine that happening here. We'd fight.

It is the most crazy detail about that riot that the violence was usually restricted to the Banlieue where those crazy kids were living. That means they torched the cars of their own parents.

I have French relatives (my uncle and his family) who live in a very wealthy suburb of Paris (Bussy St. Georges). Although it would have been logical to me, that those rioters bring in their outrage to the better neighbourhoods nothing related happened. Everything was quiet.

BTW - this was probably a certain form of cowardice since those rioters knew exactly that they would have to deal with angry family fathers then (who would have reacted like those Korean shopkeepers in L.A. - I would have done that and I have the means to be effective). In their own banlieue this was no problem, since parents usually do not shoot on their own kids - even if they burn the car.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that Germany is doing a better job of assimilation. We actually do a very good job of that over here too, which is one reason I think terrorists haven't been able to pull of another attack. Most moslems here are decent, law abiding people who just want to raise families in peace.

We Germans are for sure better than the French in assimilate those people but we also have a long, long way in front of us. The Germans still haven't understood that their country is a immigration society and they haven't understood yet that immigration is necessary to survive. You will probably know about our declining birth rates. Therefore we have to find a system to attract people with potential from all over the world.