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| Europe |
| French push limits in anti-terrorism fight |
| 2004-11-02 |
| In many countries of Europe, former inmates of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been relishing their freedom. In Spain, Denmark and Britain, recently released detainees have railed in public about their treatment at Guantanamo, winning sympathy from local politicians and newspapers. In Sweden, the government has agreed to help one Guantanamo veteran sue his American captors for damages. Not so in France, where four prisoners from the U.S. naval base were arrested as soon as they arrived home in July, and haven't been heard from since. Under French law, they could remain locked up for as long as three years while authorities decide whether to put them on trial -- a legal limbo that their attorneys charge is not much different than what they faced at Guantanamo. Armed with some of the strictest anti-terrorism laws and policies in Europe, the French government has aggressively targeted Islamic radicals and other people deemed a potential terrorist threat. While other Western countries debate the proper balance between security and individual rights, France has experienced scant public dissent over tactics that would be controversial, if not illegal, in the United States and some other countries. French authorities have expelled a dozen Islamic clerics for allegedly promoting hatred or religious extremism, including a Turkish-born imam who officials said denied that Muslims were involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Since the start of the school year, the government has been enforcing a ban on wearing religious garb in school, a policy aimed largely at preventing Muslim girls from wearing veils. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #12 Secret master Forgive me if I don't shed tears about those poor people not being allowed to oppress their women. If these guys bwant to mutilate their women or force them to don veils they are free to do it as long as it is out of France. If they want to remain in France they would be better westernizing and fast. There is no place here for people who want to live in 8th century. BTW there was a French minister who told something similar, did I tell you he was Black and born Congolese. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-11-02 7:54:50 PM |
| #11 I'm with JFM on this. Also take away their welfare checks. Force them to keep a dog and pig in every home. Make it uncomfortable enough so the Islamists can't wait to go back home. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-11-02 5:59:03 PM |
| #10 JFM: I'm with lex; the anti-veil policy creates more problems than it solves by actually oppressing Muslims (and Jews, Christians, and Sikhs.... but that's another issue). I say don't give them anything to hang their burkas on. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2004-11-02 5:55:01 PM |
| #9 Berber activist websites complain that the Algerian governemnt is doing its utmost to replace their suffi imams by wahabists. Wahabism strives for arabization of the local populations and this pleases the pan-arabist governemnt of Algeria |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-11-02 4:53:27 PM |
| #8 Thanks JFM, didn't realize that Sufism was dominant in Berberland. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-02 4:18:43 PM |
| #7 So W's going into Iraq has not really lessened cooperation between perfidious France and US intel services. I remember Mark Shields on Newshour flitting about how France would give some payback by witholding intel to the US since we did not follow Frog dictates on Iraq. Leftist/K boilerplate. So here's what I think: We need to be ready to work with whomever on domestic/international terrorism, but don't listen to France, Egypt, KSA, Jordan, etc as they hand out advice on how to proceed militarily in Iraq and elsewhere. |
| Posted by: chicago mike 2004-11-02 3:12:37 PM |
| #6 Lex On the front of the veil it is _you_ who should learn. It is not about the freedom of the girls, it is not even about the freedom of the parents, it is about islamists threatening the parents (remember what happens to appostates in the religion of peace?). It would be a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of North-Africans who are adepts of sufism (who happens to be domlinant between North-Africans at least for those speak Berber) or not religious to not counter the islamists and let them force their discriminatory ideas. During the eighties France looked the other way about female genital mutilation between girls of sub-saharian origin. It was a shame, a shame perpetrated by the left in the name of tolerance, multiculturalism and similar drivel. I don't want to have France abandon those poor girls to the islamists as it did with the sub-saharian girls. The only thing I regret is the lack the lack of strong sanctions against parents and instigators. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-11-02 3:01:53 PM |
| #5 It depends on what to goal is. If they want to assimilate them it is stupid. If they want to drive them out of the country, it is smart. I suspect the veil thing is the start of a legal ethnic cleansing program that will never be identified as such explicitly. If subtlety and nuance don't work, there's always the St Bartholomew's option. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-02 2:00:02 PM |
| #4 But their anti-veil policy is asinine. On that front there's much they can learn from us. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-02 1:52:18 PM |
| #3 Overseas, the French are pr*cks toward Uncle Sam; at home, the French are pr*cks toward their domestic jihadists. They are not our ally but there's much we can learn from them. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-02 1:51:33 PM |
| #2 The French may be a bunch of arrogant assholes whose default position is to be an enemy of the U. S. but they are not stupid. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-02 8:29:06 AM |
| #1 Guilty until proved otherwise. The Napoleonic code has it's pluses. Don't get busted in Mexico. It's pretty harsh on women and inheritance as well. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-02 8:07:40 AM |