Article

2009-09-18 Europe

France's army embraces its Muslim soldiers

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Posted by anonymous5089 2009-09-18 11:31|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 So, do these magnanimous changes in attitude include allowing Muslim women to serve in France's army? Just curious.

Posted by Woozle Uneter9007 2009-09-18 12:32|| 2009-09-18 12:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Hum, not sure there are plenty of wimmen serving in the french army to start with (not in frontlines units anyway), but there are anyway, of course, including muslim ones.

Posted by anonymous5089 2009-09-18 12:37|| 2009-09-18 12:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Thanks, 5089. Guess I should have looked it up myself...lazy me. :)

Posted by Woozle Uneter9007 2009-09-18 12:39|| 2009-09-18 12:39|| Front Page Top

#4 "If so, muslims make up between 10% (navy, airforce) to 20% (army) of the french armed forces, with some peaks at 30, 40% in some units, according to leaked figures. What does this tell about the ratio in the general population?"

Given an all volunteer force, and high unemployment among the muslim population, Im not sure it tells us anything at all. One would have to know MUCH more about recruitment into the French army, attitudes toward enlistment among non-muslim french, etc to really be able to answer that.

While the US is currently doing a pretty decent job of maintaining a military in which the majority racial group is well represented, its not historically uncommon for minorities to enlist out of proportion to their number in some countries. Why just for a start, we would have to see population numbers in the relevant age ranges - I guess the muslims in France are overall younger than the Catholic population?

Posted by liberalhawk 2009-09-18 14:06|| 2009-09-18 14:06|| Front Page Top

#5 Good points, LH, minorities in a number of countries generally do see military service as a way to step up in societies.

Posted by Steve White 2009-09-18 14:15|| 2009-09-18 14:15|| Front Page Top

#6 After the comments by Bouharb, I worry that he will become a target of the explosive criticism of those who do not have enough fervor for Islam.

The direction for this seems to be right and the fact that they are not, wholesale, giving money to the Muslims is actually encouraging. At first I though this would be a free trip to the Hajj with hookers thrown in for free!

Posted by Jame Retief 2009-09-18 14:38|| 2009-09-18 14:38|| Front Page Top

#7 Embracing them? They're just checking for explosives.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-09-18 18:30|| 2009-09-18 18:30|| Front Page Top

#8 Embracing is OK. Just no kissing on the lips, please.

Posted by SteveS 2009-09-18 20:07|| 2009-09-18 20:07|| Front Page Top

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