Anti-Islamisation Conference-Assises Contre L'Islamisation de L'Europe-in Paris

[pampango]

http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-476/_nr-1438/i.html


Protests against neo-fascism and
Islamophobia: More than 200 people
gathered in Paris on 19th December
to demonstrate against the anti-Islamisation congress

The "Assises Contre L'Islamisation de L'Europe", a congress against the spread of Islam in Europe recently held in Paris, provided rightwing extremists and opponents of Islam with a welcome forum to issue new tirades of hatred against Muslim immigrants.

A common enemy produces unexpected rapprochement. The finer points are clear-cut: The Muslims are the baddies, there are swarms of them, they are occupying Europe, taking jobs away from indigenous people, they are criminals etc.

Catering for the event – ham sandwiches and red wine – was provided by the extreme rightwing association Solidarité des Français (SDF). This group, part of the neo-fascist organisation Bloc identitaire, has caused a stir in recent years with its campaigns to feed the poor – offering "pork soup" to the homeless in Paris during the winter made it impossible for both Muslims and Jews to partake of the meal.

(Oskar) Freysinger (a member of parliament representing the Swiss People's Party (SVP)) made his appearance at the congress around midday, surrounded by an impressive posse of bodyguards. In his speech, he explained that what unites "Islam and Communism" is the fact that they are both "collectivist totalitarian systems". This is why an alliance exists between Muslims and the Left, he said.


Conspiracy theories concerning the cultural decline
of the Occident and collectivist totalitarian systems:
Oskar Freysinger, rightwing populist and MP for
the Swiss People's Party (SVP)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. If you want people to assimilate, don't act hostile to them

Eventually, people assimilate to the larger culture if you let them take their own time.

There are already well-assimilated Muslims in France, Britain, Germany, and the U.S.

A true story from Oregon illustrates the point about letting people take their own time.

In the early 1950s, a group of ethnic Russians known as the Old Believers arrived in Woodburn, Oregon. They had fled persecution in Russia in the 17th century for their refusal to join the established Russian Orthodox Church and had settled in isolated colonies in Siberia and China. After the Chinese revolution they needed a new home, and they ended up in scattered colonies in Canada, Alaska, and Oregon.

Like the Amish, they mistrusted the modern world and told the authorities that their children would go to school only through fifth grade. It was at a point when the national news was carrying stories about state troopers forcibly dragging Amish children in the East off to public schools, and the local officials didn't want any such scenes in their community, so they said, "Suit yourselves."

Over the years, the average school leaving age of the Old Believer children rose. In the early 1990s, the first Old Believer graduated from college. They still dress distinctively, but they have lost some of their suspicion of the outside world, which they developed in centuries of living in hostile or alien cultures.