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Eid Mubarak

SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
edited November 2005 in Faith & Religion
Eid Mubarak to all here!

Comments

  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited November 2005
    Allah yubarak feek...?

    -bf
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited November 2005
    I hope our Muslim brothers and sisters were able to celebrate Eid appropriately, despite the death and desolation of all those affected in Pakistan/Kashmir.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited November 2005
    Not to mention the minor fracas occurring all over France...... *sigh!* :bawling:
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited November 2005
    Do you think the rioting is about religion, Fede? I used to work in both Stains and Aulnay-sous-Bois and, even 20-odd years ago, the levels of deprrivation were horrendous. I think it much more likely that the underlying problem is poverty and lack of opportunity. Admittedly, my experiences in France convinced me that the levels of racism were higher than any other country I have visited but it was based on skin colour far more than on religion.

    I exclude the anti-Semitism from this, which is an ongoing horror all over France.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited November 2005
    The rioting in France is about many things.... Mistrust of authority, mistrust of alien cultures, racism, Islam, you name it. Anyone will come up with an excuse if they feel they need to....
    I overheard a politician (Cultural & Racial advisor to The Lord Mayor's office in London) proposing that France have made so many efforts to neutralise display of religious identity particularly in schools (crosses, stars of David, Islamic girls wearing hijabs..... can you guess which is the odd one out......? ;) ) That they have effectively neutralised much of what gives people their identity. People of different cultures or religions have little or no political representation here in France. So we in fact have a far greater cultural division that in the UK. These people are not only made to feel ostracised by their communities, but they have little that offers them comfort in the Corridors of Power. In an effort to implement 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' the French have gone far in creating an opposite ideology.....
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited November 2005
    I have read some commentators comparing and contrasting these 2005 riots with the events of May 1968 but I see major differences. Certainly, as in '68, there is an oppressive and self-satisfied government but, back then, there was great solidarity between students and workers. Even the middle classes came out and joined us on the barricades.

    These riots seem far less organised and far more about poverty and generations of unemployment in the suburban ghettoes. Have any politicians jumped on the revolutionary bandwagon? Not this time, I think, although I would not be surprised if that arch-sleazeball, Chirac, didn't imitate the criminal action of his predecessor, de Gaulle, in '68 and leave France for a while.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited November 2005
    What I find so utterly astonishing, is that the French authorities have let it escalate to this degree,a nd allowed so much time to elapse.... Here even though we are very isolated and 'countryifed', the nearest local town has a section almost entirely inhabited by people from Middle Eastern Culture..... and the local Upholders of the Law won't go near the place......
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited November 2005
    federica wrote:
    What I find so utterly astonishing, is that the French authorities have let it escalate to this degree,a nd allowed so much time to elapse.... Here even though we are very isolated and 'countryifed', the nearest local town has a section almost entirely inhabited by people from Middle Eastern Culture..... and the local Upholders of the Law won't go near the place......
    Do you think it is a question of 'culture'? Isn't it, rather, the remnants of the old colonial attitude of the French towards all of their old possessions. Even 20 years ago, I found serious and worrying marginalisation among the Senegalese in Paris. During my time there, a Senegalese squat behind the Garre de Lyons was raided by five bus-loads of armed CRS, a serious overkill.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited November 2005
    Believe me, Simon, it is almost entirely a question of the old chestnut/excuse, 'culture'....
    Sad as it may be, The words 'French' and 'xenophobic' sit very well in the same sentence.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited November 2005
    You see what I mean?

    I rest my sad and sorry case.....

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1636671,00.html
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