"Neutrality doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has shown," Allawi said in an interview with several European and American newspapers. "The French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this. Today, the extremists are targeting them too."
.
Suddenly, within France as well, there is the realization that its opposition to the American-led war in Iraq has not inoculated it from Iraqi-inspired terrorism.
.
"Nobody is safe," said an editorial in Monday afternoon editions of Le Monde. "No diplomacy can claim to be any kind of Maginot line that would protect us better than our Spanish or Italian neighbors from the death wish that has been at work since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
PARIS In a rare display of national unity, French officials, opposition politicians and religious leaders vowed on Monday that they would not allow the fate of two French hostages in Iraq to interfere with a new law on a piece of cloth.
The French government announced that it would implement its ban on Muslim headscarves and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools when they open this Thursday, despite the kidnappers demand that it must be abolished.
.
"The law will be applied," the government spokesman Jean-François Cope said in an interview Monday with Canal Plus television. François Hollande, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, joined in a chorus of condemnation of the kidnapping of the journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, saying, "It is democracy that is attacked, and the laws of the Republic that are targeted."
.
Several thousand people gathered in Paris on Monday afternoon to demonstrate in solidarity with the journalists and the French state. They chanted "Free the Hostages" and sang the Marseillaise.
.
"We are a country with laws," said Joseph Kaminski-Pipon, a 71-year-old retired doctor from Paris. "It's not up to a group of armed gangs, of outlaws, to settle our problems."
.
But there was some criticism over the wisdom of the law.
.
"It's a mistake," said Abderazzak Hatimy, a practicing Muslim who works for Air France. "The veil is not a symbol. It's an obligation."
.
In Cairo, where he began an emergency diplomatic mission to free the two men, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier pleaded for their liberation, portraying them as men of good will "who have always shown an understanding of the Iraqi people and a fondness for the Arab and Muslim world."
.
The Islamic Army of Iraq, the shadowy group holding the hostages, on Saturday night issued a 48-hour ultimatum to France over the headscarf ban, although it did not specifically threaten the lives of the two newsmen. But on Monday night, after the original deadline expired, their captors told the Al Jazeera news channel that they would extend the ultimatum by 24 hours, according to Agence France-Presse.
.
Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were shown in a video on Al Jazeera calling on the French government to revoke the ban and on the French people to demonstrate against the legislation.
.
Before the video was shown, Islamic groups both inside and outside Iraq urged the kidnappers to release the journalists, noting France's opposition to the Iraq war and saying journalists were not combatants.
.
But Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said bluntly that the kidnapping proved that France's position on Iraq, presumably its opposition to the war and the absence of a troop presence - offered it no protection from terrorism.
.
"Neutrality doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has shown," Allawi said in an interview with several European and American newspapers. "The French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this. Today, the extremists are targeting them too."
.
Suddenly, within France as well, there is the realization that its opposition to the American-led war in Iraq has not inoculated it from Iraqi-inspired terrorism.
.
"Nobody is safe," said an editorial in Monday afternoon editions of Le Monde. "No diplomacy can claim to be any kind of Maginot line that would protect us better than our Spanish or Italian neighbors from the death wish that has been at work since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
.
Indeed, in an audiotape broadcast by a Dubai-based television channel in February, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Qaeda terrorist network, condemned France for defending the freedom of nudity and depravity and fighting chastity and decency with the headscarf ban, adding that such anti-Muslim acts by the West should be dealt with by tank shells and aircraft missiles.
.
The fugitive also called the ban a crime similar to the burning of villages along with their people in Afghanistan, demolishing houses over their sleeping residents in Palestine, and killing the children of Iraq.
.
French Muslim leaders, meanwhile, Monday called the ban on religious symbols a strictly internal French issue and advised all outsiders to stay out.
.
"The hostage-takers are crazy people and what they are asking is madness," said Thomas Milcent, a Strasbourg medical doctor and convert to Islam who runs a popular Islamic Web site, in a telephone interview. "We don't want anyone to tell us what to do."
.
Still, the kidnapping has reopened the raw debate on whether the ban is a necessary means to protect the French ideal of secularism or a violation of religious freedom.
.
Even as the center-right French government and many Muslim leaders called for the strict separation of church and state, some Muslim leaders are calling for female Muslim students to test the limits of the law by hiding at least some of their hair.
.
In an interview in Monday's Le Figaro, the employer of Chesnot, Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the conservative Union of French Islamic Organizations, denounced the kidnappers as the enemies of Islam.
.
But he also said that the law only bans conspicuous signs of religion. "Discreet signs are authorized," he said.
.
The French Parliament passed the religious symbol ban early this year by an overwhelming majority, underscoring broad public support for the French secular ideal. The law states that in public elementary and high schools the wearing of insignia or clothes by which pupils conspicuously display their religious affiliation is prohibited. It also calls for "dialogue" with any student who violates the ban before disciplinary action.
.
The New York Times French carry appeal to Cairo as fears rise that 'nobody is safe'
PARIS In a rare display of national unity, French officials, opposition politicians and religious leaders vowed on Monday that they would not allow the fate of two French hostages in Iraq to interfere with a new law on a piece of cloth.
.
The French government announced that it would implement its ban on Muslim headscarves and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools when they open this Thursday, despite the kidnappers demand that it must be abolished.
.
"The law will be applied," the government spokesman Jean-François Cope said in an interview Monday with Canal Plus television. François Hollande, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, joined in a chorus of condemnation of the kidnapping of the journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, saying, "It is democracy that is attacked, and the laws of the Republic that are targeted."
.
Several thousand people gathered in Paris on Monday afternoon to demonstrate in solidarity with the journalists and the French state. They chanted "Free the Hostages" and sang the Marseillaise.
.
"We are a country with laws," said Joseph Kaminski-Pipon, a 71-year-old retired doctor from Paris. "It's not up to a group of armed gangs, of outlaws, to settle our problems."
.
But there was some criticism over the wisdom of the law.
.
"It's a mistake," said Abderazzak Hatimy, a practicing Muslim who works for Air France. "The veil is not a symbol. It's an obligation."
.
In Cairo, where he began an emergency diplomatic mission to free the two men, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier pleaded for their liberation, portraying them as men of good will "who have always shown an understanding of the Iraqi people and a fondness for the Arab and Muslim world."
.
The Islamic Army of Iraq, the shadowy group holding the hostages, on Saturday night issued a 48-hour ultimatum to France over the headscarf ban, although it did not specifically threaten the lives of the two newsmen. But on Monday night, after the original deadline expired, their captors told the Al Jazeera news channel that they would extend the ultimatum by 24 hours, according to Agence France-Presse.
.
Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were shown in a video on Al Jazeera calling on the French government to revoke the ban and on the French people to demonstrate against the legislation.
.
Before the video was shown, Islamic groups both inside and outside Iraq urged the kidnappers to release the journalists, noting France's opposition to the Iraq war and saying journalists were not combatants.
.
But Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said bluntly that the kidnapping proved that France's position on Iraq, presumably its opposition to the war and the absence of a troop presence - offered it no protection from terrorism.
.
"Neutrality doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has shown," Allawi said in an interview with several European and American newspapers. "The French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this. Today, the extremists are targeting them too."
.
Suddenly, within France as well, there is the realization that its opposition to the American-led war in Iraq has not inoculated it from Iraqi-inspired terrorism.
.
"Nobody is safe," said an editorial in Monday afternoon editions of Le Monde. "No diplomacy can claim to be any kind of Maginot line that would protect us better than our Spanish or Italian neighbors from the death wish that has been at work since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
.
Indeed, in an audiotape broadcast by a Dubai-based television channel in February, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Qaeda terrorist network, condemned France for defending the freedom of nudity and depravity and fighting chastity and decency with the headscarf ban, adding that such anti-Muslim acts by the West should be dealt with by tank shells and aircraft missiles.
.
The fugitive also called the ban a crime similar to the burning of villages along with their people in Afghanistan, demolishing houses over their sleeping residents in Palestine, and killing the children of Iraq.
.
French Muslim leaders, meanwhile, Monday called the ban on religious symbols a strictly internal French issue and advised all outsiders to stay out.
.
"The hostage-takers are crazy people and what they are asking is madness," said Thomas Milcent, a Strasbourg medical doctor and convert to Islam who runs a popular Islamic Web site, in a telephone interview. "We don't want anyone to tell us what to do."
.
Still, the kidnapping has reopened the raw debate on whether the ban is a necessary means to protect the French ideal of secularism or a violation of religious freedom.
.
Even as the center-right French government and many Muslim leaders called for the strict separation of church and state, some Muslim leaders are calling for female Muslim students to test the limits of the law by hiding at least some of their hair.
.
In an interview in Monday's Le Figaro, the employer of Chesnot, Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the conservative Union of French Islamic Organizations, denounced the kidnappers as the enemies of Islam.
.
But he also said that the law only bans conspicuous signs of religion. "Discreet signs are authorized," he said.
.
The French Parliament passed the religious symbol ban early this year by an overwhelming majority, underscoring broad public support for the French secular ideal. The law states that in public elementary and high schools the wearing of insignia or clothes by which pupils conspicuously display their religious affiliation is prohibited. It also calls for "dialogue" with any student who violates the ban before disciplinary action.
.
The New York Times French carry appeal to Cairo as fears rise that 'nobody is safe'
PARIS In a rare display of national unity, French officials, opposition politicians and religious leaders vowed on Monday that they would not allow the fate of two French hostages in Iraq to interfere with a new law on a piece of cloth.
.
The French government announced that it would implement its ban on Muslim headscarves and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools when they open this Thursday, despite the kidnappers demand that it must be abolished.
.
"The law will be applied," the government spokesman Jean-François Cope said in an interview Monday with Canal Plus television. François Hollande, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, joined in a chorus of condemnation of the kidnapping of the journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, saying, "It is democracy that is attacked, and the laws of the Republic that are targeted."
.
Several thousand people gathered in Paris on Monday afternoon to demonstrate in solidarity with the journalists and the French state. They chanted "Free the Hostages" and sang the Marseillaise.
.
"We are a country with laws," said Joseph Kaminski-Pipon, a 71-year-old retired doctor from Paris. "It's not up to a group of armed gangs, of outlaws, to settle our problems."
.
But there was some criticism over the wisdom of the law.
.
"It's a mistake," said Abderazzak Hatimy, a practicing Muslim who works for Air France. "The veil is not a symbol. It's an obligation." |
