Posted by: hurray January 11, 2015
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Vivant,
I lived in France for 5 years doing my post-doc research. I saw first hand the problems French society is facing with assimilation of muslim immigrants.
You talk about “give-and-take”. My opinion is, when you live your sh*t-hole country to come live in a richer western country, you take what it has to offer. You are already welcomed and all you have to do now is abide by its rules. Or else you stay where you are. You can’t come to the US and make your own rules.
France gives a lot to its people, including foreigners. It gives you free health care (even to foreigners); it gives you free education until university, it gives you cheaper social housing according to your financial situation; it gives you monthly minimum living wage even if you do not have a job etc etc. In fact a lot of work training programs are reserved to immigrants to help them get into work market.
But when a muslim immigrant goes to a hospital in France and demands that his sick wife gets checked only by a female doctor and not by a male doctor, it poses a problem. When some public school canteens start serving “halal” meat to all the students because it has a few muslim kids, it poses a problem. When some muslims make their wives and daughters wear niquab and roam around the streets in France, it poses a problem. When you see pavements outside of mosques filled with muslim praying on Fridays, it poses a problem. When you see French football players and French national anthem get booed by muslim french during a friendly match against Algeria in the stadium in Paris, it poses a problem. All these things pose problem to the republican ideas and principles French people have died for. And it shows a blatant disrespect towards the country and its people that have welcomed them.
Now, Algeria still has a lot of French living there. Tell me how many catholic churches are there? None. And how many mosques are there in France? Plenty.
France has a big Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, Indian and Chinese communities. But these communities never create any problem. It seems to be only the muslim communities (mainly Algerians) that seem to create problems. Surprised? Not me.
I personally believe, Islamic ideas and principles do not correspond with democratic values and that is the core of the problem.
Anyway with more than 50 international leaders participating in the walk today in France, I think the history is being made here. In future when we (including muslims themselves) will be able to make fun of any religion and idol including Mohammed without risking their lives, we will be able to thank those guys from Charlie Hebdo who died for it. So like I said in my previous post, we need people like the ones from Charlie Hebdo to push boundaries and test democracy.
So “Je suis Charlie”, does not mean, I agree 100% with the guys from Charlie Hebdo and their cartoons, it just means, “I am Charlie and I have the right to say what I want, about who I want without being killed for it.” No one should be governed by a religion.
I lived in France for 5 years doing my post-doc research. I saw first hand the problems French society is facing with assimilation of muslim immigrants.
You talk about “give-and-take”. My opinion is, when you live your sh*t-hole country to come live in a richer western country, you take what it has to offer. You are already welcomed and all you have to do now is abide by its rules. Or else you stay where you are. You can’t come to the US and make your own rules.
France gives a lot to its people, including foreigners. It gives you free health care (even to foreigners); it gives you free education until university, it gives you cheaper social housing according to your financial situation; it gives you monthly minimum living wage even if you do not have a job etc etc. In fact a lot of work training programs are reserved to immigrants to help them get into work market.
But when a muslim immigrant goes to a hospital in France and demands that his sick wife gets checked only by a female doctor and not by a male doctor, it poses a problem. When some public school canteens start serving “halal” meat to all the students because it has a few muslim kids, it poses a problem. When some muslims make their wives and daughters wear niquab and roam around the streets in France, it poses a problem. When you see pavements outside of mosques filled with muslim praying on Fridays, it poses a problem. When you see French football players and French national anthem get booed by muslim french during a friendly match against Algeria in the stadium in Paris, it poses a problem. All these things pose problem to the republican ideas and principles French people have died for. And it shows a blatant disrespect towards the country and its people that have welcomed them.
Now, Algeria still has a lot of French living there. Tell me how many catholic churches are there? None. And how many mosques are there in France? Plenty.
France has a big Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, Indian and Chinese communities. But these communities never create any problem. It seems to be only the muslim communities (mainly Algerians) that seem to create problems. Surprised? Not me.
I personally believe, Islamic ideas and principles do not correspond with democratic values and that is the core of the problem.
Anyway with more than 50 international leaders participating in the walk today in France, I think the history is being made here. In future when we (including muslims themselves) will be able to make fun of any religion and idol including Mohammed without risking their lives, we will be able to thank those guys from Charlie Hebdo who died for it. So like I said in my previous post, we need people like the ones from Charlie Hebdo to push boundaries and test democracy.
So “Je suis Charlie”, does not mean, I agree 100% with the guys from Charlie Hebdo and their cartoons, it just means, “I am Charlie and I have the right to say what I want, about who I want without being killed for it.” No one should be governed by a religion.