Interesting article on Sarkozy's attempt to protect his nation from being taken over by the Muslim World.
French President Confronts Muslims who openly seek to transform France into a Muslim nation with threat of deprotation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to start a dialogue with his countrymen about their national identity...
What's more, he demonstrated that he is willing to wage a head-on battle against the forces of political correctness...
Then he espoused a national identity that might resonate for Americans in the wake of the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre by a Muslim-American army major who reportedly espoused radical Muslim beliefs.
Sarkozy suggested that France could be on the verge of losing its soul because of a multiculturalism that tolerates radical Islamic fundamentalism...
At the heart of the identity crisis plaguing today’s France is a significant immigrant population that refuses to become French, and a multicultural left that has allowed them to live isolated in ghettoes for decades, where many have fallen prey to Muslim preachers of hate.
About 10 percent of the French population is of Muslim origin. Most French Muslims emigrated from North Africa to France after Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia won their independence in the 1960s.
Although many have assimilated into French secular society, which Sarkozy applauded, others openly seek to transform France into a Muslim nation and have won allies in the multicultural left.
“France does not demand that you give up your history or your culture,” Sarkozy said. “But France demands of those who would link their fates to hers to also share her history and her culture. France is not hodgepodge of communities or individuals. . . Becoming French means accepting a form of civilization, values, and customs.
France is a country where women are free. France is a country where church is separate from state, and where the beliefs of each person are respected.
But France is also a country where there is no room for the burka, and where there is no room for the subjugation of women under any circumstance or pretext."
The French have debated for 25 years whether Muslim women should be allowed to veil themselves in public schools or in public workplaces, as radical Muslim preachers and their supporters on the left have demanded.
Sarkozy ended that debate scarcely one year after becoming president by outlawing the veil in public last year.
In announcing the reform at the time, Sarkozy said he was troubled by the “discriminatory and degrading” Islamist practice of veiling women.
“I don’t want certain neighborhoods to feel more like Kabul or Tehran than France...
To open our doors to others, we have to have enough confidence in ourselves. We must be sure of our values and of our model...
And it is for this reason, my fellow citizens, that anyone who comes to France to call for violence and hatred of the other will be deported...
It is not our values that are at fault but our departure from them, at times even our denial of them,” Sarkozy said.