Middle East Focus: French Culture Wars: a Troubled Sarkozy Treads Fascist Waters……….

Arabia Deserta

French Culture Wars: a Troubled Sarkozy Treads Fascist Waters……….

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“French Interior Minister, Claude Guéant, has revived the controversy surrounding the clash of civilizations and anti-Islamism by stating that “all cultures are not of equal value” under his ruling party's republican principles. Guéant, who is a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, told a symposium organized by a right-leaning student group at the National Assembly on Saturday that “contrary to what the left’s relativist ideology says, for us, all civilizations are not of equal value.” He criticized the French Socialist Party for not having voted for a legislation that banned the Muslim face veil. “The majority voted to ban the full veil and the Socialist Party did not vote,” the French daily Le Monde quoted him as saying. “Another example is street prayer. I heard a very important socialist leader saying that this didn’t bother anyone, but it does bother a lot of the French, it bothers a particular principle of secularism. And we banned prayer in the street [and this is] an expression of civilization,”…………”

He says: “all civilizations are not of equal value". That is truly Fascist territory, almost Salafi French Wahhabi territory.
He said: "we banned prayer in the street [and this is] an expression of civilization”.
Cute: banning a public expression is a sign of the neo-right civilization. Almost something both the "national insecurity" and "cultural" sides of the American right would agree with. Yet only a French right-winger in a tough election year may be able to say this with a straight face. Sarkozy is getting desperate: his Socialist rival is ahead in the polls. His “liberation” of Libya did not do the trick. He may need to liberate Syria, and soon. Then there is always the verbal punching bag du jour: Iran.
Sarkozy looks down, but the French electorate have a talent for re-electing lousy presidents who are almost always engulfed in scandal as soon as they leave office. The financial corruption occurs while they are in office, but they are exposed after they leave office. De Gaulle was one exception in the past half century.
Cheers
mhg

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