French Prime Minister Francois Fillon scrambled on Wednesday to dispel concerns in the Jewish and Muslim communities after criticizing the ritual slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat.
Halal meat in particular has emerged as a hot-button issue in the campaign for presidential elections starting next month in France, a country with at least 5 million Muslims, the largest in western Europe.
Fillon’s call for religions to “reflect” upon what he called outdated traditions has fed a hyper-charged political atmosphere. His boss, conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has openly courted far-right voters in hopes of boosting his lagging chances of re-election, with digs at Muslim practices and calls to shrink immigration.
However, for many, Fillon’s comments went too far. He hosted Jewish leaders on Wednesday and was expected to meet with Muslim leaders yesterday in what appeared to be an attempt to ease concerns about his comments on French radio this week.
The Jewish leaders he met said Fillon assured them that Judaism was not targeted, but insisted they would keep an eye on government policy. France also has a large Jewish community, estimated at about half a million.
Most French are Roman Catholic by heritage, and many French holidays and traditions are linked to Christianity. However, for a century the government has professed allegiance to a strict separation of church and state.
It was in the name of this official secularism that Sarkozy — and many French people — backed a 2010 law banning the face-covering Islamic veil such as the niqab or burqa in all public space in France. France also bans the Islamic headscarf and other obvious religious symbols from public schools.
Polls suggest Sarkozy is facing an uphill battle against front-runner Socialist Francois Hollande for the elections, to be conducted in two rounds on April 22 and May 6.
Sarkozy has been upfront about trying to lure votes from the far-right National Front’s candidate, Marine Le Pen, who shows in a strong third place in polls and whose father made it into the 2002 presidential election runoff.
Sarkozy hit a nationalist note with his first big campaign rally last month and has continued the theme since. On Saturday, he criticized special indulgences for halal meat in schools or separate swimming hours for Muslim women in public pools.
“There is no place in the republic for xenophobia, there is no place for racism ... There is no place for pools with hours for men and hours for women,” Sarkozy told a rally in Bordeaux.
On Tuesday he called for halving the number of immigrants who come to France each year. Many immigrants are from largely Muslim former French colonies in Africa.
“I think that in order to relaunch integration under favorable circumstances, we need to divide by two the number of people that we welcome [to France]. So to go from 180,000 to 100,000,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese