IW
News Brief: French Food Fight, CAIRless Lawmaker
by David J. Rusin
• May 13, 2015 at 11:04 am
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Some French schools institute pork-or-nothing policies
As British schools increasingly
ban
pork,
the opposite
approach is gaining traction in France. Mayor Gilles Platret of
Chalon-sur-Saône, a town in Burgundy, recently told parents that students
who avoid pork for religious reasons will no
longer be offered an alternative meat dish starting in September.
This signals a "return to the principles of secularism," said
Platret, a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right Union for a Popular
Movement. Sarkozy, the former French president, defended the
much-criticized stance, asserting
that "if you want your children to observe dietary habits based on
religion, then you should choose private religious education."
Officials in Arveyres
and Sargé-lès-Le
Mans previously announced similar changes in their cafeterias, and
Marine Le Pen pledged
that substitute meals would be pulled from schools in towns won by her
nationalist party in last year's local elections.
Putting aside the issue of whether such rules are productive or merely
vindictive, the hard feelings underscore how dependence on government
services exacerbates cultural strife. The more people expect from
government, the more they expect it to conform to their own values.
Arguments about too much or too little accommodation are the inevitable
outcome. If you want something done right, do it yourself — advice that
applies equally well to those who consume pork and those who reject it.
What is the French term for "brown-bag lunch"?
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Left: If pork is on
the menu, French mayors like Gilles Platret want students to eat it.
Right: Politician Larry Haler, an example of how not to deal with CAIR.
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State legislator blasts CAIR, then caves to it
When a Democratic colleague proposed
repealing the state of Washington's Cold War-era law on subversive
activities, Representative Larry Haler, a Republican from Richland, countered
that it should be modernized to address radical Islam. He singled out the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
"We do have a group in this country called CAIR, which is basically
run by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. They are a political
entity," he said. "And their goal is to overthrow the
country." Indeed, CAIR was an unindicted
co-conspirator in the case against the Holy
Land Foundation, which financed Hamas, an arm of the Muslim
Brotherhood. Federal prosecutors named
CAIR as one of the "individuals/entities who are and/or were
members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its
organizations"; a judge backed
the listing. Also note that the Brotherhood has described its
mission as "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization
from within."
Yet after CAIR demanded evidence — readily available evidence — to
support his remarks, Haler privately
apologized. He "never provided information to CAIR on the
alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas," one report
claims. CAIR's emboldened allies then released a letter
painting his comments as "long-discredited conspiracy theories"
that "malign the whole of the American Muslim community" and
thus endanger it. Although Haler declined
their request for a public retraction, the damage is done. Engaging
CAIR requires a stiff spine and command of the facts deeper than a sound
bite. Haler was not up to the challenge.
* * *
For more coverage of nonviolent Islamism in the Western world, see
Islamist Watch's extensive archive of news items
and other resources on the IW
website.
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