Western Resistance

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September 20, 2006

Tunisia: Muslims Ban French Newspaper For Questioning Islamic Intimidation

Today, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur via The Raw Story and also from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) news comes that the French right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro has been banned in Tunisia. The reason for the ban is an article by French philosopher Robert Redeker (pictured), entitled: "Face aux intimidations islamistes, que doit faire le monde libre?" or "What should the free world do in the face of Islamist intimidation?".

The decision was announced by an official from the Tunisian government's interior ministry. RSF claims that the piece is aggressive against Muslims, but having spent nearly two hours translating it into English, I do not think it is aggressive. It is honest.

RSF states: "Without taking a position on the content of the op-ed piece, which was very aggressive towards Muslims, we point out that it is up to Tunisian readers to form their own opinion and not for the Tunisian authorities to filter information."

The Tunisian newspaper La Presse said that copies of the offending edition, which appeared yesterday, were removed because Redeker's article contained "harmful content offensive to the Prophet, Islam and Muslims." How long the ban will last is unknown.

There is no point arguing over whether or not the piece insults Islam, as my translation can be found beneath. For those who can read French, this is a link to the ORIGINAL TEXT.

I will merely state that Robert Redeker was born in 1954 in the south of France, in the Pyrenees. He teaches, writes articles and books, lectures around the world, and is a member of philosophical boards, he is on the editing board of Marianne and also the newspaper Tageblatt, which is published in Luxembourg.

His website (in French) can be found HERE, along with a list of his articles.

This is my translation of his article:
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What should the free world do in the face of Islamist intimidation?

The reactions caused by the analysis of Benoit XVI on Islam and violence highlight the underhanded maneuver carried out by the same Islam to stifle what the West has of more value than anything which exists in any Moslem country: the freedom to think and to express oneself.

Islam tries to impose on Europe its rules: opening of swimming pools at certain hours exclusively for women, prevention of caricaturing this religion, requirement of a particular dietary treatment for Moslem children in canteens, the battle to wear the veil at school, accusations of Islamophobia against free spirits.

How can one explain the ban on the wearing of thongs on Paris-Beaches*, this summer? The reasoning put forth was bizarre: the risk of "disturbing public order". Did this mean that bands of frustrated youths would become violent, faced with displays of beauty? Or were they scared of Islamist demonstrations by the brigades of virtue on the approaches to Paris-Beaches?

Moreover, the non-prohibition of the veil on the street is, by inviting complaints for upholding the oppression of women more properly "disturbing public order" than the wearing of a thong. It is not inappropriate to think that this ban represents an Islamization of sensibilities in France, a more or less conscious submission to the diktats of Islam. Or, at the very least, that it is the outcome of the insidious Muslim pressure on the senses: even those who protested the introduction of a "Jean Paul II Square" in Paris would not be opposed to the construction of mosques. Islam attempts to force Europe to yield to its vision of humanity.

As in the past with Communism, the West finds itself under ideological scrutiny. Islam presents itself, in the image of defunct Communism, as an alternative to the western world. In the manner of Communism before it, Islam, to conquer spirits, plays on a sensitive nerve. It prides itself on a legitimacy which troubles the western conscience, attentive to others: to be the voice of the oppressed of the planet. Yesterday, the voice of the poor claimed to come from Moscow, today it comes from Mecca! Today again, intellectuals express the views of the Koran, as they expressed the views of Moscow yesterday. They excommunicate people for Islamophobia, as yesterday they did for anti-communism.

In the opening up to others, specific to the West, a secularization of Christianity appears, whose bottom line is summarized as follows: the other person must always pass in front of me. The Westerner, the heir to Christianity, is to be the one to make his soul exposed. He runs the risk of passing himself off as weak. With the same ardor as Communism, Islam treats generosity, broadmindedness, tolerance, gentleness, freedom of women and of manners, democratic values, as signs of decadence.

These are the weaknesses that it seeks to exploit, by means of "useful idiots", those of good consciences imbued with fine sentiments, in order to impose the Koranic order on the Western world itself.

The Koran is a book of unparalleled violence. Maxime Rodinson states, in Encyclopedia Universalis, some truths that in France ae aas significant as they are taboo. On one hand: "Mohammed revealed in Medina unsuspected qualities as political leader and military chief (...) He resorted to private war, then the current institution in Arabia (....) Mohammed soon sent small groups of partisans to attack the Meccan caravans, thus punishing his unbelieving compatriots and simultaneously acquiring the booty of a wealthy man."

Additionally: "Mohammed profited from this success by eliminating from Medina, by means of massacre, the Jewish tribe which resided there, the Quarayza, whom he accused of suspect behaviour." Finally "After the death of Khadija, he married a widow, fine domestic, (called) Sawda, and also little Aisha, barely ten years old. His erotic predilections, held in check for a long time, led him to embark on ten marriages jointly."

The exaltation of violence; a merciless war chief, plunderer, slaughterer of Jews and a polygamist, such is the man revealed through the Koran.

In fact, the Catholic church is not above reproach. Its history is strewn with dark pages, for which it has made repentance. The Inquisition, the hounding of witches, the execution of the philosophers Bruno and Vanini, those wrong-thinking Epicureans, even well into the 18th century the (execution of the) knight of La Barre for impiety, do not plead in the church's favor. But what differentiates Christianity from Islam is apparent: it is always possible to bring forth the evangelical values, the mild personage of Jesus against the deviations of the Church.

None of the faults of the Church have their roots in the Gospel. Jesus is non-violent. Turning back to Jesus is turning against the excesses of the ecclesiastic institution. Turning to Mahomet, by contradiction, reinforces hate and violence. Jesus is a master of love, Mahomet is a master of hatred.

The stoning of Satan, each year at Mecca, is not just a superstitious phenomenon. It not only sets the scene for a rabble flirting with barbarity. Its scope is anthropological. Here in effect is a rite, which each Muslim is invited to submit himself to, emphasizing violence as a sacred duty in the heart of the believer.

This stoning, annually accompanied by the trampling to death of the faithful, sometimes in several hundreds, is a ritual which nurtures archaic violence.

Instead of getting rid of this archaic violence, in imitation of Judaism and Christianity, by neutralizing it (Judaism starts with the abandonment of human sacrifice, that is to say by entering into civilization, and Christianity transforms sacrifice in the Eucharist), Islam builds a nest for this violence, where it can be incubated. When Judaism and Christianity are the religions whose rites conjure violence, delegitimizing it, Islam is a religion which, even in its sacred text, as well as in its definingl rituals, exalts violence and hatred.

Hatred and violence inhabit the book with which every Muslim is brought up, the Koran. As in the Cold War, where violence and intimidation were the methods used by an ideology intent on forcing hegemony, so too does Islam, to place its leaden cloak over the world. Benedict XVI suffered a cruel experience. In these times, one must call the West the "free world" compared to the Muslim world, for in these times, the enemies of the "free world", zealous functionaries of the Koran's vision, are swarming at its center.
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(* translator's note - the Paris Beaches were artificial "beach fronts" on the banks of the Seine, where women were forbidden from going topless. "String" has been translated as "thong".)
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With great thanks to Robert O, my very good (and bilingual) friend, for proof-reading the translation and amending my errors.

UPDATE: Since the publication of this article in Le Figaro, Robert Redeker, his wife and three children have been subjected to death threats by Muslim extremists. For details, see HERE.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 20, 2006 6:22 PM

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