PARIS – A planned anti-Islam conference by right-wing groups is sparking widespread condemnations across France, amid warnings that such events fuel hatred and animosity against Muslims.
“It is a racist conference held under the banner of fighting extremism,” Sami Dabah, spokesman of the Coalition against Islamophobia, told OnIslam.net on Saturday, December 18.
“Most of the participants in the conference do not hide their animosity towards Islam as a religion.”
Bloc I’dentitaire, a far-right group, opened Saturday a three-day conference to stop what it says “Islamization of Europe”.
In the conference’s declaration, organizers state that the aim of the event is “to defend European values, especially secularism, in front of the Islamization trend on European lands.”
Among the invited guests is Oskar Freysinger, a Swiss rightist who championed a right-wing initiative to ban the building of mosque minarets in Switzerland last year.
Other anti-Islam figures will also show up at the conference, including Tommy Robinson, spokesman of the English Defense League, an extreme right anti-Muslim group.
The conference follows controversial statements Marine Le Pen, the front-runner to become the leader of the far-right National Front, in which she compared Muslim prayers to Nazi occupation, stirring a storm of criticism in France.
Her statements, however, chime with a growing right-wing mood among voters in Europe, where far-right parties are pushing for tighter immigration and labor market rules.
France is home to some 5-6 million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.
Animosity
French political groups and anti-racism groups warned that anti-Islam conferences help fuel hatred and animosity against Muslims.
“The aim of this conference has nothing to do with secularism,” a coalition of left-wing parties said in a statement.
“Rather, it promotes ideas that bear a hateful and potentially violent discourse against some of our fellow citizens [French Muslims] on the basis of their religious convictions,” added the coalition, which includes the French Communist Party, New Anti-capitalist Party, Radical Party of the Left, the Greens and Left Party.
Several French groups have called for a protest march against the anti-Islam conference.
“As a pro-Muslim rights organization, we were the first to call for demonstrations against the conference,” Dabah said.
“Heading the call, several legal organizations have already called for assembling in front of the conference’s hall.”
The French Human Rights League (LDH) and Education Without Borders network also called for a “symbolic and peaceful” assembly at 11 A.M., near the Espace Charenton meeting hall.
Other activists called on Paris police to ban the anti-Islam meeting, including Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe who made a written request to police commissioner Michel Gaudin asking him to take all the necessary measures to make sure this meeting can not be held.
“[It] can only fuel hatred, xenophobia, and public disorder,” Delanoe said in his request.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/450185-anti-islam-conf-stirs-france-uproar.html
“It is a racist conference held under the banner of fighting extremism,” Sami Dabah, spokesman of the Coalition against Islamophobia, told OnIslam.net on Saturday, December 18.
“Most of the participants in the conference do not hide their animosity towards Islam as a religion.”
Bloc I’dentitaire, a far-right group, opened Saturday a three-day conference to stop what it says “Islamization of Europe”.
In the conference’s declaration, organizers state that the aim of the event is “to defend European values, especially secularism, in front of the Islamization trend on European lands.”
Among the invited guests is Oskar Freysinger, a Swiss rightist who championed a right-wing initiative to ban the building of mosque minarets in Switzerland last year.
Other anti-Islam figures will also show up at the conference, including Tommy Robinson, spokesman of the English Defense League, an extreme right anti-Muslim group.
The conference follows controversial statements Marine Le Pen, the front-runner to become the leader of the far-right National Front, in which she compared Muslim prayers to Nazi occupation, stirring a storm of criticism in France.
Her statements, however, chime with a growing right-wing mood among voters in Europe, where far-right parties are pushing for tighter immigration and labor market rules.
France is home to some 5-6 million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.
Animosity
French political groups and anti-racism groups warned that anti-Islam conferences help fuel hatred and animosity against Muslims.
“The aim of this conference has nothing to do with secularism,” a coalition of left-wing parties said in a statement.
“Rather, it promotes ideas that bear a hateful and potentially violent discourse against some of our fellow citizens [French Muslims] on the basis of their religious convictions,” added the coalition, which includes the French Communist Party, New Anti-capitalist Party, Radical Party of the Left, the Greens and Left Party.
Several French groups have called for a protest march against the anti-Islam conference.
“As a pro-Muslim rights organization, we were the first to call for demonstrations against the conference,” Dabah said.
“Heading the call, several legal organizations have already called for assembling in front of the conference’s hall.”
The French Human Rights League (LDH) and Education Without Borders network also called for a “symbolic and peaceful” assembly at 11 A.M., near the Espace Charenton meeting hall.
Other activists called on Paris police to ban the anti-Islam meeting, including Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe who made a written request to police commissioner Michel Gaudin asking him to take all the necessary measures to make sure this meeting can not be held.
“[It] can only fuel hatred, xenophobia, and public disorder,” Delanoe said in his request.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/450185-anti-islam-conf-stirs-france-uproar.html