Monday, September 13, 2010

Echoes of Vichy


With France back to business after the August break, politicians of the right are once again leaping on the one trick that they hope can help them win back public support — xenophobia.

By Nabila Ramdani

New Statesman

".....Associating people of "foreign origin" with violent crime is a favourite Sarkozy tactic. Consider the way he has successfully portrayed the burqa and niqab, face-covering garments worn by no more than a few hundred women in France, as symbols of all that is wrong with the country's Muslims. Sarkozy's crude arguments are presented in black-and-white terms, often literally. Just as views on a "burqa ban" have been transformed into a simple choice between Islam and secular France, so definitions of modern French citizenship may soon exclude Muslim lawbreakers....."

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