Of course, it was to be held in a "heavily Muslim neighborhood" -- a provocation, to be sure. And yet I can't help but wonder what might have happened if a Muslim group in France had announced that it was going to do something in a non-Muslim area that many non-Muslims found offensive. (That would not be the same thing as holding the halal event in the same area, as described in the article below.) I expect that the same police who banned this party would be protecting the Muslims physically and lecturing the non-Muslims about "tolerance."
"French police ban planned street party serving pork and wine in heavily Muslim neighborhood," by Pierre-Yves Roger for Associated Press, June 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):
PARIS (AP) -- French police have banned a street party whose organizers planned to serve alcoholic cocktails and pork sausages in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of Paris, authorities said in a statement Tuesday.Police said the party, called "Sausage and Booze," could have been viewed as a provocation in the Goutte-d'Or neighborhood of northern Paris, where many Muslims pray on the streets because there are not enough mosques. Alcohol and pork are forbidden by Islam and the party had been slated for just after Friday's main Muslim weekly prayers.
Organizers said they were holding the party to protest Islam's encroachment on traditional French values in the neighborhood. Muslim groups had announced a counterparty serving halal, or religiously approved, food.
Police banned both events.
"Because of the organization, location, day and timing chosen, as well as the counterparty plans, this event ... creates grave risks of public trouble," the police statement said. Police also said they met at length with organizers on Tuesday before announcing the ban.
French rights group SOS Racisme praised the ban on the party, which they called it a "flagrant call for hatred."
The woman who organized the party on Facebook and gives her name as Sylvie Francois denies any ties to the extreme right. She told the free daily Metro newspaper on Tuesday that she had launched the party as a way to "express exasperation."
She complained that the "Islamization" of her working-class neighborhood was "more and more ostentatious," and complained that Muslims now block several streets during Friday prayers.
"It offends my concept of the republic's secularism, I feel increasingly excluded in the neighborhood," Francois said....
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Jews don't eat pork either.
Do you suppose the "Sausage and Booze" party would have caused riots, carbecues, stone throwing and blood in the streets in a Jewish neighbourhood?
I say go ahead and provoke the muslims. They always show their true colours best when they're provoked...........and even when they aren't.