Excellent article on CoxandForkum.com about how France has realized too late that appeasement of the Islamofascist does not work…

Ah well Jacques! Shouldn't have been so rude to us (the US and UK) last year and we might have had a care for you…



From The New York Times: Hostages Urge France to Repeal Its Scarf Ban.

[Hostage] Georges Malbrunot, who writes for the daily newspapers Le Figaro and Ouest-France, said, "I appeal to the French people and every Frenchman who appreciates the meaning of life to stage demonstrations demanding that the law banning the Islamic veil be revoked, because our lives are in danger and we might die any minute if this law, which I urge President Chirac to revoke, is not abrogated." [...]

The law bans conspicuous religious symbols from public elementary and high schools. It is scheduled to go into effect when schools open on Thursday. [...]

... Iraq's prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said the kidnapping proved that France's position on Iraq -- presumably its opposition to the war and the absence of a troop presence -- offered no protection from terrorism.

"Neutrality doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has shown," Mr. 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."

That realization, that opposition to the American-led war in Iraq has not provided immunity from Iraq-related terrorism, appears to have sunk in here [in France] as well.

"Nobody is safe," said an editorial in Le Monde on Monday. "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."

More accurately, a policy of appeasement with terrorists and dictators is a Maginot line, i.e., an ineffective line of defense. Worse still, appeasement acts as a lure to evil, inviting more and more blackmail because it rewards blackmail. That is why diplomatic compromise with Islamists -- whether in France or Najaf -- only furthers their cause and, ultimately, threatens western liberty. As the Times article notes:

n an audiotape broadcast by a Dubai-based television channel in February, Ayman Zawahiri, the No. 2 figure in the terrorist network Al Qaeda, condemned France for defending the freedom of nudity and depravity and fighting chastity and decency with the scarf ban, adding that such anti-Muslim acts by the West should be dealt with by tank shells and antiaircraft missiles.

Robert Tracinski summed up the issue in today's TIA Daily:

The Europeans have long clung to the fantasy that certain specific "grievances" -- treatment of Israel and the Palestinians, US "Imperialism," and so on -- are the cause of terrorism. In reality, as French President Jacques Chirac is discovering, Islamic terrorists hate the West because of what we are -- and because we stand in the way of the global Islamic theocracy they long to impose.

UPDATE August 31: Belmont Club has more: Shadow of France. (Via InstaPundit)

www.coxandforkum.com/

ANdy

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kowalskis/events/joey03/france_sucks.jpg
http://www.francesucks.com/france2.gif

I needs me one of them there T shirts

AFRCOM group buy.

Although to be fair, (as the article points out) these kidnappings are related to France's ban on muslim headscarves in schools - and not really to do with their involvement (or lack thereof) in Iraq.

Granted - this might not have happened, were it not for the precedent set by other kidnappings, but I'm not sure anyone is surprised that muslim extremists would find a way to protest France's ban on headscraves/veils.

I agree with the IRONY, however!  




I did hear an interesting story on NPR the other day, where they were interviewing a protest of thousands of people in paris - who were protesting in support of the law, and telling the terrorists to go to hell.  Particularlyt interesting was the number of muslims who were demonstrating in support of the law, and having no sympathy whatsoever for the mulsim terrorists.  I found it refreshing that there seemed to be sensible and reasonable peopel in France, even if their government is full of shameless assholes.

Although to be fair, (as the article points out) these kidnappings are related to France's ban on muslim headscarves in schools - and not really to do with their involvement (or lack thereof) in Iraq.

That is exactly the point.

Muslim extremist will attack the West either way. France has a right to govern itself does it not… without the interference of foreign Muslim extremist.