From The National Post
Sarkozy defends Swiss vote to ban minarets
James Mackenzie, Reuters Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Valentin Flauraud/Reuters Protesters demonstrate the vote to ban minarets in Switzerland, Dec. 1, 2009
PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Switzerland’s vote to ban new minarets showed why it was vital for France to hold an extended debate on national identity despite criticism that it has only fuelled racist views.
In a column in the daily Le Monde on Tuesday, Mr. Sarkozy defended the Swiss referendum against widespread criticism in France, saying it had laid bare fears of a loss of identity that should not be ignored.
“Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France,” he wrote.
“Nothing would be worse than denial.”
Critics say a national debate launched by his government risks exacerbating tensions with the country’s large Muslim and immigrant population and panders to far-right voters in the run up to regional elections in March.
Mr. Sarkozy said integration meant a mutual acceptance by both new arrivals and the existing population of what each could bring the other while respecting certain fundamental standards.
France has seen repeated episodes highlighting concerns over integrating immigrants from its Muslim former colonies in North and West Africa — the latest controversy centring on whether to ban all-covering burqas to be worn in public.
Mr. Sarkozy highlighted the defence of national identity in his 2007 election campaign and pressed for the public debate that is due to end in February with a list of proposals.
The opposition Socialists have also been wary about leaving the issue entirely to Mr. Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party and the far-right National Front and some on the left have cautiously joined the debate.
Mr. Sarkozy said he would fight any form of discrimination against Muslims in France, but added that they had to adapt themselves to the values of France’s secular Republic and its strict neutrality in religious matters.
Without renouncing its values, Islam in France would have “to find in itself the paths by which it will include itself without conflicting with our social and civic pact,” he wrote.
He said the question of identity had come to the fore in an era of globalisation that had both shaken up long-held values and increased the need for a feeling of belonging to a group.
“This dull threat that so many people in our old European nations feel, rightly or wrongly, hanging over their national identity, we have to talk about it together lest repressing this feeling ends up feeding a terrible bitterness,” he wrote.
© Thomson Reuters 2009.
One Comment
Good for him not to have followed in the footsteps of the rest of the Eurodhimmis, whose arrogance and contempt for democracy and the will of the people; especially in this unique case in which the latter didn’t accept their political elite’s decisions imposed on them, with little or no debate, from the top down, couldn’t be more evident than in how they’ve been talking about Eurabian courts possibly “correcting” the result of the Swiss vote (the hypocritical arab-wannabes from Turkey have demanded a “correction” too); or, in plain Eurabian Union speak (as evidenced by how multiple votes on the Lisbon Treaty were held in countries where it had been rejected, until the outcome produced results favoring it), “voting again until the Swiss get it ‘right’” has even been demanded by Daniel Con-Bandit, that sickening commie and chief Eurabia-enabling surrender weasel.
Switzerland will have to stand its ground, no matter what, if its democracy is to survive the latest round of assaults on it. And, on the bright side, this is certainly helpful to Swiss politicians opposed to Eurabian-Union membership.
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