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Synagogue burnt down in Marseilles
BBC ^ | April 1, 2002

Posted on 03/31/2002 9:41:52 PM PST by Prodigal Son

A fire destroyed a synagogue in the southern French city of Marseilles later on Sunday, in what appears to be the latest in a wave of attacks against Jewish targets across the country.

Police have yet to comment on the cause of the blaze which destroyed the building in the Mediterranean port city, the French news agency AFP reports.

In attacks in other cities, shots were fired at a kosher butcher's and two other synagogues were damaged in what Jewish leaders are seeing as a pattern of violence.

A leader of France's Jewish community said the attacks were warning signs that anti-Semitism reminiscent of the Nazi era could sweep the country.

The fire in Marseilles on Sunday night was condemned by Clement Yana of the French Jewish Representative Committee.

"This is not an accident," he said. "The fire took hold in several places. It was done with petrol. This is an anti-Semitic act."

The earlier attacks all came within 24 hours each hours of each other at the weekend in or near major cities.

'Profoundly worried'

No-one has been hurt in the attacks, though there was a report of a Jewish couple being assaulted in the town of Villeurbanne, in the Rhone region, causing the woman to spend the night in hospital.

Jean Kahn, president of the Central Board of French Jews, said events were reminiscent of "Kristallnacht" - the name given to the night of 9 November, 1938, when German mobs embarked on a rampage of anti-Semitic violence with the backing of Adolf Hitler's Nazi government.

The Jewish Central Consistory in Paris said it was "profoundly worried by the repeated attacks on French synagogues," and called on the government immediately to step up protection of Jewish buildings and institutions.

The attacks came during the Jewish festival of Passover and followed a surge of violence in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin condemned the Lyon attack as "spineless and absurd".

"I will not accept the spread of racism and anti-Semitism in our country," he said.

President Jacques Chirac also denounced the violence but denied there was a spirit of anti-Semitism in France.

Police in various areas have strengthened security around Jewish buildings.

Israeli leaders - including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - have said French anti-Semitism is on the rise, but the government in Paris argues that the attacks are mainly the work of Muslims of North African origin and must be seen in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Marseilles has a particularly large Muslim community.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; france; synogue
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To: Prodigal Son
when will Europe wake up?

Good question.

When Islam cuts off their oil? When burning synagogues, follows the course of normal Islamic evolution, and people start exploding in the streets, or attacking the priceless artifacts and symbols of democracy and culture?

I half expected a plane attack on the eiffel tower, on the same day or week when the islamic radicals murdered our fellow americans in New York. I fear for Europe in that our family members... they are. Cousins, aunts, uncles, blood relatives, and often kindred in so many ways, Europe carried the torch of Western Civilization.

Now, they are unable to carry their own chambre pots, and complain to us, of their own stench. They are indeed easy victims. With (semi) fortress america at attention, I expect our interests abroad, will become targets of opportunity in Europe. As Islam cuts off their oil, and Europe bleats, I doubt Islam will let it off the hook. THEY may be foolishly counting on the bleating of Europe, with the scimitar held to her throat, to bring us to our knees.

Europe, may not be as aquiescent as Islam hopes. And WE will not be brought to our knees... Were I a musli, I would be VERY concerned about Allah's ability to protect, mecca, medina, the temple mount, and the capital cities of every arabic/islamic state from the wrath of the USA, Israel, Britain... and even France.

Like the genie of old... I think its time for Islam to get back in its bottle for a few thousand years.

21 posted on 03/31/2002 10:30:34 PM PST by Robert_Paulson2
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To: Prodigal Son
This is how the "Master Religion" Islamofascists repay French hospitality for taking in the dregs of North Africa.

Remember all the anti islamic hate crimes that DIDN'T happen after 3,000 of us were slaughtered on 9-11 by islemmings screaming "Allah Akbar"?

22 posted on 03/31/2002 10:35:51 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Prodigal Son
Marseilles is well over 50% Arab.

When I was in Marseilles about 8 years ago, I was installing software in a bank downtown. We would work all night and leave for our hotels in the morning. Many times the cars would have equipment stripped from them. We were told by the locals that the Arab population had lots of ties to North Africa. Apparently, there was an auto parts trade. Stolen cars from prior years needed parts. The locals would supply the parts needed in North Africa by stealing parts from cars on the streets. Headlights from expensive cars were frequent targets.

Earlier in the trip, our car was broken into and all of our luggage was stolen. I had to replenish everything at local stores. [Don't let anyone tell you that products are cheaper in Europe. In general, shoes and luggage were the only bargains.] We were told, without proof, that Arab rings were breaking into cars in the area.

23 posted on 03/31/2002 10:37:14 PM PST by the_Watchman
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To: Robert_Paulson2
bump
24 posted on 03/31/2002 10:42:11 PM PST by timestax
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To: Prodigal Son
To judge from the list of comments on this thread, these people aren't "au fait" with French politics. Attacks on synagogues are the speciality of the radical right wing of French politics - sometimes linked to right wing anarchist groups. They are also very VERY anti-Arab and anti-Islamic. The mosques of Marseilles have been vandalised again and again, and attempts to burn them down have only not succeeded because there are worshippers there at night. The French Jewish community are aware of all this, and have often deplored the violence.
25 posted on 03/31/2002 10:42:13 PM PST by BlackVeil
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To: Salvation
When will the French realize that Al-Qaida is out for them too?

When the Eiffel Tower is a smoldering heap of scrap iron.... Nah, even then they still wouldn't get it. That's the beauty of existentialism: such trivial things as patriotism and self-preservation are unnecesary bourgeois concepts; just sit back and be smug and superior, and pretend you're not impotent to the weakest thirdworld banana republic.
26 posted on 03/31/2002 10:42:14 PM PST by HDawg
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To: Robert_Paulson2
Oil is an interesting bargaining chip. I do not believe Europeans have their own supply. In the event of general hostilities, it looks like Putin would help supply the West. He has had it up to the neck with Muslims in Chechnya. We have reserves, but I wonder how much our economy would have to scale back witout Arab oil.

Before this is over, we may wish we had developed oil in Alaska on a much wider scale. I believe the Democrats have been the chief impediment to this.

27 posted on 03/31/2002 10:43:23 PM PST by the_Watchman
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To: Sandmansleeper
Mosques may experience a dramatic increase in premiums for fire and causalty insurance.....due to losses, if this crap continues!

That makes me think. The Islamic world hates the USA. They hate us for what we are (although Europe says they hate us for being arrogant). Islamic crazies attack us directly; destroy a skyline that was a tangible monument to the creative potential of man and kill thousands of our citizens. But did we go on a binge of hate induced Mosque burning? No. Except for the recent incident of the man driving his pickup truck into one in Florida incidents of this type have by and large not happened. We are a tolerant people.

But here you have these crazies who I suppose are upset about something going on somewhere where they have no direct connection except the one they define as religious affiliation and sympathy (Palestinian problem) and what do they do? Attack Jewish places of worship.

And the Europeans are sympathetic to them. They write articles apologizing for such behaviour- "It's the only method of protest available to them". The Europeans condemn us for being arrogant but they shift uneasily when put upon to describe what is happening within their own borders. On a side note, if the Europeans really despised arrogance as much as they say- Michael Schumacher would be the most reviled man on the continent. The insanity of it all.

28 posted on 03/31/2002 10:50:19 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Travis McGee
Remember all the anti islamic hate crimes that DIDN'T happen after 3,000 of us were slaughtered on 9-11 by islemmings screaming "Allah Akbar"?

Aye, I was already typing my reply number 28 when you posted.

29 posted on 03/31/2002 10:53:52 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: BlackVeil
Attacks on synagogues are the speciality of the radical right wing of French politics - sometimes linked to right wing anarchist groups.

That's a fair point. It doesn't say in the article who did it.

But, I would point out these incidents took place on the heels of the Israeli military "crackdown" (for want of a better word) on Arafat. Also, as has been pointed out, Marseilles has a very large Muslim population. It seems to me that perhaps the BBC has purposefully omitted the fact that at least an eye should be cast towards the Muslim community in France. Instead they are very faithful to the Kristalnacht metaphor- leading one to think along Right Wing Fanatic lines. Lionel Jospin certainly wasted no time condemning the acts and I'm sure he could only benefit by making certain the public thinks the Right Wing is responsible. Hey, it might turn out that they were.

But given the Islamic rap sheet of late- they are "the usual suspects" and someone will need to show me that they weren't behind it.

30 posted on 03/31/2002 11:01:52 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Prodigal Son
Lots of Algerian Muslims now live in France and the French have been notorious anti-Semites. for centuries.
31 posted on 03/31/2002 11:04:42 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Prodigal Son
The Master Religion Islamofascists see nothing wrong with their human mass murder bombs,

but howl with rage when the IDF tries to stop them.

And in France the daily slaughter of Israeli women and children is totally ignored,

but the IDF counter attack on armed Palestinean terrorists causes them to burn synagogues.

Go figure.

32 posted on 03/31/2002 11:06:46 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: HDawg
Very well said, but I wonder how long that smugness will last when the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versaille Palace and Arc d' Triomphe are turned to rubble by the Islamofascists?
33 posted on 03/31/2002 11:09:23 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Robert_Paulson2
As Islam cuts off their oil, and Europe bleats, I doubt Islam will let it off the hook.

This is an interesting point. And the left in our own country hate oil companies and pipelines. All their 9/11 conspiracy theories center around the "Bush/Cheney Cabal" wanting to build pipelines in Afghanistan and in Eastern Europe in order to get stinking rich. They (the left) just cannot make the connection between that black stuff in the ground and our actual daily survival. Clinton will never find his legacy. But if what you say comes to pass- The legacy of George W Bush will be full of kudos for the crafty way he avoided Europe's fate by guaranteeing the flow of our nation's black life blood from other than Arab sources.

34 posted on 03/31/2002 11:12:54 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: nopardons
Lots of Algerian Muslims now live in France and the French have been notorious anti-Semites. for centuries.

Yeah, that's true. The Nazi's didn't exactly have to twist the French's arm to turn over Jews to the concentration camps.
35 posted on 03/31/2002 11:13:57 PM PST by HDawg
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To: Prodigal Son
But given the Islamic rap sheet of late- they are "the usual suspects" and someone will need to show me that they weren't behind it.

I agree. France's Muslim population is large and militant. Poor old Charles Martel must be spinning in his grave.
36 posted on 03/31/2002 11:16:19 PM PST by irishjuggler
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To: Travis McGee
Much like Robert Fisk, I'm sure they would find a way to blame it on us.
37 posted on 03/31/2002 11:18:11 PM PST by HDawg
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To: Prodigal Son
What the hell is going on in France!

Historical amnesia. In the 8th and 9th centuries France was instrumental in stopping the spread of Islamic invaders into Europe, in particular at Poitiers and later during the reign of Charlemagne. Would that the French remember (and revive) their past glory...

38 posted on 03/31/2002 11:19:20 PM PST by egomeimihi
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To: Travis McGee
Even FRANCE can boil over and go nuclear. Who knows?

I suspect they would however, spend their time crying over the lost latté machines...

France would wake up, if Notre Dame were targetted by radical muslims. It USED to be the center of France, I am told.

It is for certain that things cannot get better, unless they get a little worse now and then... right now, things are looking a little worse to me.

39 posted on 03/31/2002 11:20:16 PM PST by Robert_Paulson2
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To: Robert_Paulson2
It USED to be the center of France, I am told.

Useless trivia here: every roadsign in France that states the number of kilometers to Paris is measured to the stone in front of Notre Dame that says Kilometer Zero, or so I'm told.

40 posted on 03/31/2002 11:29:55 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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