A unity march with little unity What was the purpose of the big - TopicsExpress



          

A unity march with little unity What was the purpose of the big march in Paris on Sunday? French authorities estimate more than a million Parisians marched - more even than when the Allies liberated France from the Nazis. But what was their point? Some rallied for free speech. Many carried signs saying Je Suis Charlie, a reference to the Charlie Hebdo magazine staff who were murdered by Muslim terrorists for daring to draw cartoons of Mohammed. There were also lots of sad images of pencils. But very few images of Mohammed. Was it a rally against Muslim terrorism? Perhaps. Many Parisians who were interviewed by the media talked about freedom and French values, including secularism. Thats an oblique way of opposing sharia law, of which censorship of images is a part. TV footage suggests there were few French Muslims in the march. Perhaps they worried it would be an anti-Muslim rally and stayed away; perhaps they simply support sharia. The official name of the march was a unity rally. But what does that mean? That everyone in France stands together? But France is divided. Some people believe in freedom of speech, the separation of mosque and state, the equality of men and women, and the non-violent solution of problems. And a troubling number do not. Some believe that the jihad - Muslim holy war against non-believers - is a problem. Others dont. The socialist president Francois Hollande made a noisy show of not inviting his rival, Marine Le Pen, to the march. Hollande received an estimated 93% of the Muslim vote in France; Le Pen believes in limiting Muslim immigration. There is no unity on that issue. The list of VIPs invited to the march gives other mixed message too. More than 40 world leaders attended. Canada sent a cabinet minister. But the United States sent no one of note - not President Barack Obama, who according to reports spent the morning watching football on TV; not VP Joe Biden, or Secretary of State John Kerry. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris, but didnt bother to attend the march. Why the snub? Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked to attend, not only out of solidarity with France, but with Frances beleaguered Jewish community, four of whom were murdered by the terrorists on Friday. Incredibly, Hollandes office requested that Netanyahu not attend, and when he insisted, they retaliated by inviting the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who just happens to also be the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. And when Netanyahu joined the march, he was not put in the front row with other world leaders - he had to push his way there, by introducing himself to the president of Mali, and asking to link arms with him. So a free speech rally in defence of cartoonists - with almost no cartoons. A unity rally - without many Muslim marchers, and with a leading politician excluded. A rally for liberal values - with America absent, Israel unwanted, but foreign bullies from Palestine to Turkey to Saudi Arabia welcome. Mercifully, there were no speeches at the rally, no call to action, no declaration of resolve. Thats pitiful - but probably better than what Frances leaders would have said. If thats the best France can muster after the biggest terrorist attack on its soil, theyre doomed. sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2015/01/20150113-072341.html
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:36:08 +0000

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