French Question Loyalty of Moslem Troops
Will French Muslim troops be willing to go against Muslim rioters in France if ordered to? I'm not so sure:French Question Loyalty of Moslem Troops
France has been detecting, or at least fearing, loyalty problems among the fifteen percent of its soldiers who are Moslem. The military insists that these second and third generation soldiers of, for the most part, Arab descent, are loyal. But many Christian soldiers, NCOs and officers are not so sure. Harassment of Moslem troops by Christian soldiers is common. There have been no major incidents of soldiers turned terrorists, but the abuse from paranoid soldiers, NCOs and officers might push Moslem soldiers to go bad. This is believed more likely because there are no Moslem chaplains. Thus Moslem soldiers seek spiritual advice from clerics with no military experience, and possible a radical agenda. More worrisome is that radicalized soldiers will leave the army equipped with skills they can use for terrorist attacks.
Week of violence prompts French soul-searching
The rioters are young, overwhelmingly Muslim men, second-generation immigrants from France's former Arab and African colonies, who claim they are protesting economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing. Hardline new law-and-order policies implemented by interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy have also been widely accused of fuelling anger in the high-rise, mainly immigrant estates where the trouble has spread. Sociologist Michel Wierviorka, speaking in Le Parisien newspaper, charged that Sarkozy had "stigmatised entire communities" by arguing that crime-ridden areas should be "cleaned with a power-hose". Police union leader Bruno Beschizza described the riots as "urban terrorism", led by small knots of criminals as well as Islamic radicals.
Rioting Spreads From Paris Across France
Marauding youths torched nearly 900 vehicles, stoned paramedics and burned a nursery school in a ninth night of violence that spread from Paris suburbs to towns around France, police said Saturday. Authorities arrested more than 250 people overnight — a sweep unprecedented since the unrest began. For the first time, authorities used a helicopter to chase down youths armed with gasoline bombs who raced from arson attack to arson attack.
Taheri: French rioters calling for reorganization of France into separate religious enclaves
Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire: Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs.
posted by Unknown @ 5:07 PM
11 Comments:
Prior to the civil war in Lebanon, most of the rank and file soldiers in the Lebanese Army were moslems while most officers were Christian. I remember reading that one morning when the troops assembled on the parade ground, all the Christians had their throats cut and the troops went over to the Islamist/Palestinian side in the conflict. This should be a warning to the French and other countries with a large moslem population.
Shortsightedly, the British recently announced they wanted to recruit more moslems into the armed forces.
If this happened in Britain the media would all say that it was a consequence of our government's support for the Iraq war....
if the riots happened in Britain, that is
Soldiers fight for their comrades. Unless the muslim soldiers in generel feel totally unaccepted, wich I doubt, they'll fight. History has shown that quite clearly. Of course there will be some wich don't feel any loyalty towards their comrades and might be placing their loyalty some where else. But that will properly be very few. In generel I don't think the french army has a problem about this.
tefta:
Most Arabs in the U.S. are Christians, not Muslims. Nice to see you have an open mind.
fjordman: Great piece with great comments. I have linked to it here:
http://jammedgun.blogspot.com/2005/11/message-to-our-military-beware-of.html
Well, tefta, that's just too bad you were annoyed; if the facts bother you then that's your problem.
If you had managed to do the research instead of letting your prejudices get in the way, you would find that the majority of Arabs in the U.S. are not only Christian, but they are also native-born. Remember that you stated "I won't have an Arab doctor and any medical personnel near me or any member of my family." Now exactly how does that put a distance between you and Muslims when odds are that the Arab doctor is a Christian?
I'm quite aware of the danger of Islam. Are you aware of the danger of ignorance? Try getting a clue yourself.
Most of the Arabs in the US are Christian? That's news to me as well.
How do you know they are not muslims just practising that ketman thing? (Or taqqiya or whatever it is called.)
jude:
The number of Muslim Arab Americans is around 25%. 13% are another or no religion and the rest are Christian. The reason they are not faking it is because they know Muslims as well are better than anyone else -- that's why they immigrated to the U.S. Don't forget that Egypt has millions of Coptic Christians who are constantly persecuted. And around a third of Arab Americans have their origins in Lebanon, which has a large Christian population. There are various sources for this information including the U.S. census.
Look, I don't care what you believe, but all government and non-government sources I have read state that only about 25% of Arab Americans are Muslim. It is not a contention, it is an established fact.
"Your contention that Lebanese Christians and Egyptian Copts make up over half the Arab population in the U.S. is preposterous. If that’s the case, why so many mosques?"
Of course, it is preposterous because I didn't say that. I said "around a third of Arab Americans have their origins in Lebanon," which I got from the U.S. census. I never made any statement about the number of Arab Americans being Egyptian Copts.
As far as why so many mosques, it would be for the very simple reason that the majority of Muslims in the U.S. are not Arabs. You certainly seem to have a problem distinguishing between Arabs and Muslims. But then, why let facts get in the way?
BTW, I guess you would prefer to die rather than to receive an artificial heart from Dr. Michael DeBakey, an Arab American … and a Christian.
"I would think it is you who are ignorant of Middle Eastern history."
ik:
Well, that is an interesting conclusion considering I didn't state anything having to do with Middle Eastern history. And the pre-Islamic and the Arabization of the Middle East are not relevant to my point. All that I said is that the group of Americans who are classified as Arab Americans are predominately Christian, not Muslim. To paraphrase you, "I would think it is you who are ignorant of Arab Americans."
If you and tefta would bother to really read what I said, you could quit trying to tell me what I already know about Islam, Muslims and Arabs from the Middle East.
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