Operation End Extremism

Homeland diplomacy

To France, where the government seems to have got itself into another jam.

This time, however, America is not involved. Not directly, anyhow.

In French circles, the talk over cigarettes and black coffee is that Chirac’s obstinate opposition to the war in Iraq was designed to avoid domestic terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals.

Whether you believe that or not, the French government is certainly engaged in some tough diplomacy with their Muslim compatriots.

This week saw the creation of France’s first National Council of Muslims. In effect, the body will speak to the government on behalf of France’s Muslim communities. It will address issues such as education, work, the preparation of meat, and, that old chestnut, dress code.

France already has long-existing councils for Catholics, Protestants and Jews. But the creation of the Muslim Council has proven highly controversial, particularly in the current climate.

Paris’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, has already voiced his concern at the manner in which Islam is being invited into the Republic, accusing the government of making Islam a “state religion”.

But what does this mean?

The creation of the Council has been overseen by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (himself the child of immigrants, in this case Hungarian). He wants “an official Islam of France”. Organising France’s Muslims into a single representative body, he says, is the best way to fight “the Islam of cellars and garages that has fed extremism and the language of violence.”

There are 5 million Muslims in France. About 7% of France’s population is Arab and Muslim, the highest percentage in western Europe. The New York Times quotes Mustapha Zergour, director of Radio Gazelle, a Marseille radio station geared towards Arab listeners: “We are no longer a France of baguettes and berets, but a France of Allah-u Akbar and mosques.”

Last month, Le Figaro ran a poll. It reported that 72% of French Muslims said they hoped the United States would lose the war in Iraq. 79% favour the creation of private Koranic schools funded by the state. 55% are opposed the ban on headscarves for French schoolgirls.

Now, about 4,000 delegates from nearly 1,000 mosques and prayer centres have voted for members of the new Council.

Before the elections, Sarkozy hammered out a compromise deal to make sure that no matter what, Dalil Boubaker, rector of the Paris mosque, will head the council. Boubaker is a moderate with whom Sarkozy believes he can best do business.

The elections, as defined by Sarkozy, were supposed to show how respectable and law-abiding France’s Muslim communities are. The government and the media expected the elections to be dominated by Boubaker’s moderate Islamic organisation.

Unfortunately for Sarkozy, it didn’t work out that way.

Out of forty-one seats on the Council, Boubaker’s moderates won only six. Instead, the fundamentalist Union of Islamic Organisations in France, which preaches strict conservative Islam, took fourteen seats.

Sarkozy was unhappy. “It is precisely because we recognise the right of Islam to sit at the table of the republic that we will not accept any deviation,” he said. “Any prayer leader whose views run contrary to the values of the republic will be expelled...Islamic law will not apply anywhere because it is not the law of the French republic.”

The NYT says the Union of Islamic Organisations has “come under fire from those who claim it has close links with the [banned] Muslim Brotherhood, which calls for Islamic rule via Islamic law, personal purification and political action.” “This is a victory for Muslims,” says Khalil Merroun, rector of the conservative mosque of Evry.

Others aren’t so sure. Addzidine Houssain, president of an Islamic group in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denissaid, said in Le Parisien that Sarkozy has “created an Islam that has no connection with the Islam of France.” As far as he is concerned, “The wolves have entered the manger.”

(Source: various reports in the New York Times)

Whale threat

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that certain interests in Washington are bent on removing environmental regulations that get in the way of their military ambitions.

The catchily-named “Operation End Extremism” is a five-week old campaign, dreamt up by Republican staff on the US Senate’s environment committee. Its aim is to shelter the US war people from the enviros and their lawsuits.

Last month, with US troops amassed on the Iraqi border, the Pentagon asked Congress to “clarify” environmental regulations that it said hampered its ability to train soldiers. Of particular concern were marine mammals, toxic waste, air quality, and endangered species, all of whom pose great threats to the world’s greatest military power.

Under the leadership of James Inhofe, the Republicans on the environmental committee have, in the words of the FT, sent “periodic e-mails to journalists offering sentence-by-sentence rebuttals of environmental groups’ criticisms”.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC – an environmental group with a military-sounding name) accuses the Pentagon of using “classic Bush administration Orwellian logic.”

Democratic presidential hopeful, Joseph Lieberman, agrees, saying, “we can defend the red, white and blue – and be green at the same time” – a campaign slogan if ever there was one.

For the meantime, though, the new “axis of evil” comprises “whales, dolphins and other cetaceans.”

Extremists all.

Shocking business

It had to happen.

Electronics giant Sony has got itself in trouble for attempting to register the phrase “Shock and Awe” for its computer games division.

For those of you just back from Mars, “Shock and Awe” is the phrase used by the US military to describe its tactics in Iraq of unprecedented intensive bombardment, described by the BBC as “deliberately intimidating bombing”.

Sony thinks that “Shock and Awe” would make a great game for its Playstation console. Kids the world over could flatten Baghdad, time and again.

As you would expect, there were complaints. Sony admitted “regrettable bad judgment”, and says it has withdrawn its trademark filing for the phrase.

Children shouldn’t worry. There are already other games on the market simulating the war in Iraq. You’ll just have to kill the enemy one by one.

Who’s the laziest of them all?

The Diary, of course, is never one to indulge in stereotypes. However, it can safely say that Portugal is the laziest nation in the European Union.

That’s because it’s official.

Scientists at the University of Navarra in Spain carried out research into sedentary lifestyles within the EU.

They found that 88% of Portuguese “get hardly any exercise and spend lots of time sitting down” (BBC).

But what is sedentary, you might ask. Well, in this case, to be classed as sedentary, you need to spend less than 10% of your leisure time engaged in sporting or strenuous activities.

Sound familiar, anyone?

The results were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. In eleven of the EU’s current fifteen member nations, an average of 50% of people are living unhealthy lifestyles. In the other four it’s over 70%.

So how does Portugal react to the news that it has the laziest people in the Union? “It’s true,” said Tiago Craveiro, a spokesman for the Portuguese deputy prime minister.

The healthiest nation, of course, is Sweden, where only 43% of people are classed as sedentary. More surprisingly, perhaps, the Irish came in second.

(Source: BBC News Online)

Quotes of the week

“Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed, brutal dictators.”
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence.

“They’re either dead or they’re running like hell.”
General Tommy Franks guessing the whereabouts of the Iraqi High Command.

“Watching them is like watching the collapse of the Berlin wall.”
President Bush on the toppling of a Saddam statue by the residents of Baghdad.

“One of the most extraordinary military campaigns ever conducted.”
Vice-President Dick Cheney on the US invasion of Iraq.

“We are hopeful that a number of regimes will draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq.”
John Negroponte, US Ambassador to the UN.

“There are better choices it can make.”
US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Syria.

“Each situation will require a different response.”
President Bush on how to deal with Syria, North Korea, Iran, and so on.

“I know that we will have to part with some of these places. As a Jew, this agonises me. But I have decided to make every effort to reach a settlement.”
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel discussing the settlements in an interview with Ha’aretz.

“No-one can doubt that the real winners today are Hungary’s children.”
Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy of Hungary welcoming the ‘Yes’ vote for Hungarian membership of the EU. 83.8% of voters were for membership, but only 45.6% turned out.

“I don’t think you can resist our wines.”
Guillaume Percheron, French citizen, telling the New York Times why he is not worried about a US boycott of French products.

Contact the Diary editor: dominic.hilton@openDemocracy.net