All posts in category 'France'

France: ‘Unjustified provocation for Arab public opinion’

March 21st, 2008 | Posted in Boycott, Culture, France, Lebanon, Palestine, Politics, Solidarity, War and Terror

    Al-Ahram: Mohamed Salmawy, Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Writers.

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    Photo: Paris metro.

Representatives of 25 Egyptian and Arab syndicates, led by Mohamed Salmawy and Ibrahim El-Moalem, chairman of the Arab Publishers Union, submitted a memorandum to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 24 February explaining the reasons behind the Arab protest at Israel’s invitation as guest of honour at this year’s Paris Book Fair, which opened in the French capital last week.

“Honouring Israel, and celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Israel’s independence, a state which constantly violates international peace and the basic human rights of the Palestinian people, can only be seen as an unjustified provocation for Arab and international public opinion,” the memorandum read.

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Lebanon: Cast to the wind

December 31st, 2007 | Posted in Beirut, Corporate Media, France, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Politics, Solidarity, Syria, War and Terror

    Lucy Fielder Reports for Al-Ahram.

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    Photo: In Beirut a worker sweeps the street in front of the parliament

Lebanon ended the year much as it had begun, in political limbo. In November 2006, six ministers’ resignations paralysed the government and crystallised the two-year-old split between government loyalists and the opposition. A year later, president Emile Lahoud’s term ended without a successor, leaving a dangerous vacuum at the top. As the year drew to a close, it looked as though Lebanon would drift rudderless until either fractious politicians resolved their power struggle, or frustrations spread to the streets.

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Beyond the Veil

December 10th, 2007 | Posted in France, Politics, Religion, Repression

    The Nation. by Laila Lalami

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    Photo: Paris Mosque.

“A kind of aggression.” “A successor to the Berlin Wall.” “A lever in the long power struggle between democratic values and fundamentalism.” “An insult to education.” “A terrorist operation.” These descriptions–by former French President Jacques Chirac; economist Jacques Attali; and philosophers Bernard-Henri Lévy, Alain Finkielkraut and André Glucksmann–do not refer to the next great menace to human civilization but rather to the Muslim woman’s headscarf, which covers the hair and neck, or, as it is known in France, the foulard islamique.

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