"Sarkozy assured Balkenende of his "support" over lunch at the Elysee Palace, saying he was "highly aware of the question of Islam's place in European societies, and French society in particular," a presidential spokesman said."

What about non Muslims place in a future Islamic Europe? Are they aware of that question?

Posted by: Elric66 at March 6, 2008 11:23 AM

Isn't it amazing how freedom of speech can so easily be suppressed by threats of violence.

The Muslims are already winning this one.

Posted by: Mackie at March 6, 2008 11:28 AM

They have already won this one, Mackie.

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at March 6, 2008 11:48 AM

"Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who fears a Muslim backlash over a film criticising Islam made by a far-right Dutch MP."

Fears a Muslim backlash? Where do these 'Islamophobes' get their distorted view of the RoP from?

Posted by: awake at March 6, 2008 12:03 PM

I would like to renounce all the French blood in my body, but it's really French-Canadian blood and there's not that much of it, so.

Who won that Battle of Tours? I know, Charles Martel was more German than French, but come on...........

DeGaulle won't have stood still for this.

Posted by: tanstaafl at March 6, 2008 12:15 PM

As Voltaire said:

"Ecrasez l'infame!"

(Crush the infamous thing.)

In this instance: pandering to intimidating theocratic intolerance.

Wake up Sarko and smell the banileues!

Posted by: profitsbeard at March 6, 2008 12:27 PM

THE SPIRIT OF PETAIN LIVES!

Posted by: poetcomic1 at March 6, 2008 12:36 PM

sheik yer'mami

It is certainly appearing that way more than I have seen it in the past.

And now we the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's is expressing fears himself. Quite frankly I find this behavior appalling, and an a front to the fundamental values of freedom of speech that the West holds dear.

"WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF" -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Fleet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7274259.stm

Posted by: Mackie at March 6, 2008 12:43 PM

These European politicians genuinely don't care anymore, about what their indigenous public think.

For them Eurabia is a done deal, and with that in mind, we whom remain in our Mother Countries can quite frankly "GO TO HELL".

The BBC are about to begin a series of programmes in the U.K. entitled;

Is the white working class in Britain becoming invisible?.

Bit rich coming from them I'll grant you, but;

Here is a preview of what we can expect, in an article from the daily mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=523351&in_page_id=1770

I read with some irony, that as no BBC producer could bring themselves to associate themselves with their own indigenous peoples, they had to sub-contract the series out, to an American Journalist, who by all accounts, got the shock of his life, in discovering what the white working classes now thought of Nu Labour in Britain.

Posted by: Offthehook at March 6, 2008 12:49 PM

Of course Sarkozy will side with the Dutch PM. He has how many million Muslims in his country who tend to riot over nothing, like a silly cartoon. Strange part is, they will riot without ever having seen any cartoon or film themselves. Muslims react to whatever the Islamists tell them to do which only suggests the real affiliation of all those 'moderates' we keep hear about.

Muslims don't seem to take any exception to all those Jewish cartoons generated in the Arab world though. Hmmm.

Posted by: Sounder at March 6, 2008 1:11 PM

Some of are so called leaders, and groups who are cringing from the Geert Wilders film release

!. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's

2. French President Nicolas Zarkozy

3. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen

4. All Dutch Broadcasters

5. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende

6. Dutch Christian Democrat party

7.-- If you can name leaders or organizations who are against the release of this film--I will try to maintain a list.

However bravo here---

---From a poll conducted yeasterday, a majority of Dutch People want the film to be broadcast even though they fear it will stoke tension with Muslims and harm relations with Arab nations, a poll showed .

Posted by: Mackie at March 6, 2008 1:21 PM

Mackie, that quote is from FDR's first inaugural address in 1932. The Depression had caused a lot of fear in the US. The future looked just as bleakin 1932 as it did in 1942.

Talk is cheap, I want to hear of it being shown on French TV, then I will congratulate Sarkozy.

Posted by: Pelayo at March 6, 2008 2:09 PM

Sarkozy and Balkenende are snivelling cowards and traitors. They are concerned about one thing only but they will never admit it. The filthy lucre. Holland and France's trade with Islamic countries... fascist totalitarian regimes like Saudi Arabia. The Dutch economy.The French economy. Their SUV's and expensive lifestyles are more important to them than truth, freedom and beauty.They are shamefully compromised weaklings who are sleeping with the enemy for the sake of comfort. Fear is what motivates them. They are the problem..not Wilders.These dhimmis do not care about the Dutch people and human rights...not for a second. Anyone who genuinely loves freedom and equal rights and knows what Islam and the koran represents would support Wilders whose aim is merely to highlight the incitement to hatred and violence in a book regarded as the word of God and therefore immutable.
Sadly, it may take an Islamic atrocity on Dutch soil to wake the subdued and dhimmi Dutch population up from their TV/shopping/sport/alcohol addicted torpor into an urgent awareness of how their culture..what's left of it... is dying.

Posted by: johndoe at March 6, 2008 2:34 PM

What the hell happened to Sarkozy??

Posted by: Dumpling at March 6, 2008 2:35 PM

"What the hell happened to Sarkozy??"
Posted by: Dumpling

He discovered exactly what this site and others like it have been warning about for several years. Islam is radical. The more immigrants you bring in, the bigger the radical problem you have. Simple math really. France is stuck, as are others, with an enormous problem, a victim of their own blind doing, and mind you other western countries are blind to the blind doings of France and will suffer the same fate. Hardly believable but true. The old saying: "You make your own bed then lay in it."

Sarkozy can't fix this problem. He knows it.

Posted by: Sounder at March 6, 2008 2:58 PM

"Sarkozy can't fix this problem. He knows it."

He can if he wants but the longer he waits, the steeper the price will be for doing it.

Posted by: Elric66 at March 6, 2008 3:12 PM

Shame on you, President Sarkozy. You inspired me, once. No more.

"Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY (i.e. freedom of speech) to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY (i.e. long-term endangerment), deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-Ben Franklin

Posted by: Professor PyroSkank at March 6, 2008 3:16 PM

Gee, I sure missed the point of that article. Note to self: Read entire article before commenting.

Posted by: Pelayo at March 6, 2008 4:03 PM

I am amazed at how everyone is all up in arms, kow towing to these spoiled brat muslims, criticizing a film that is yet to be seen!

Posted by: balticwaves at March 6, 2008 4:07 PM

What can one expect when the government owns the media?

In the U.S., the Democrat Party controls most of the broadcasting with their media operatives.

I say most, and it would be interesting to see which network/sponsors would promote this in the U.S.

C'mon. Anyone who visits this site is aware of what the media dishes out. That's why we are here. Wilders' short film will be seen the world over on the internet. Print is dead, and television will soon follow.

Posted by: CapitalistGig at March 6, 2008 4:21 PM

Offthehook writes:

The BBC are about to begin a series of programmes in the U.K. entitled, "Is the white working class in Britain becoming invisible?" Bit rich coming from them I'll grant you, but here is a preview of what we can expect, in an article from the daily mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=523351&in_page_id=1770

A local councillor, who once championed the arrival of Ugandan Asians in Peterborough, now says that "enough is enough".

Posted by: tvdog at March 6, 2008 5:24 PM

PARIS, March 6, 2008 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday voiced his solidarity with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who fears a Muslim backlash over a film criticising Islam made by a far-right Dutch MP.
Sarkozy assured Balkenende of his "support" over lunch at the Elysee Palace.
Balkenende stressed once again that he was in "total disagreement" with the film's author Geert Wilders, warning it could spark protests similar to those unleashed by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark.
"Obviously, we need to be careful of what is happening in other countries," he said.

What a pair of racist bigots Sarkozy and Balkenende are! They know that the "Piss Christ" "art-work", and the anti-Jewish rantings of Farfur Rat on Arabic children's TV, did not inspire any vandalism, riots, or fire-bombings by their Christian and Jewish populations; yet they expect the Moslems to react to this mild provocation with violence. In other words, they regard the Moslems as savages and barbarians. That looks like racism to me.

Posted by: ebonystone at March 6, 2008 5:25 PM

"What a pair of racist bigots Sarkozy and Balkenende are! They know that the "Piss Christ" "art-work", and the anti-Jewish rantings of Farfur Rat on Arabic children's TV, did not inspire any vandalism, riots, or fire-bombings by their Christian and Jewish populations; yet they expect the Moslems to react to this mild provocation with violence. In other words, they regard the Moslems as savages and barbarians. That looks like racism to me. "

That is a outrageous, dishonest accusations, what do those two have to do with Arab TV shows or american crap art? How many people here agree that this movie will provoke Muslim violence, all of us I imagine. They may be cowardly, but when Muslims around the world threaten violence, they at least have to regard those threats seriously, whether they agree to suppress the film or not. Anything less than that would be irresponsible.

Posted by: Dumbo at March 6, 2008 5:58 PM

Sarkozy assured Balkenende of his "support" over lunch at the Elysee Palace, saying he was "highly aware of the question of Islam's place in European societies, and French society in particular," a presidential spokesman said.

----------------

Resisting Islam for centuries is all for not, the inept, ignorant and arrogant are giving away what their ancestors died to protect.

This would make Charles Martel turn in his grave.

Posted by: Sneakyzionistcrusader at March 6, 2008 8:52 PM

There are no leaders in the West any more.Sark is a disappointment.

John Howard was one who knew. He is no longer in power.He's in the USA right now.
transcript of his speech here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23328945-5014047,00.html

John Howard's Irving Kristol Lecture

March 06, 2008

IRVING KRISTOL LECTURE
DELIVERED BY THE HON JOHN HOWARD
TO THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
GALA DINNER WASHINGTON, DC USA
Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Posted by: Gramfan at March 6, 2008 9:20 PM

"Ugandan Asians"? I thought Uganda was in Africa.

That term is undoubtedly PC code in Britain for Ugandan Muslims. Apparently, they have decided that all Muslims are "Asians", no matter where they hail from.

Ironic to see Orientalism return through the back door doing back-flips.

Posted by: cantor at March 6, 2008 10:37 PM

Fitzgerald: Sarkozy: Curb your enthusiasm

Some previous curb-your-enthusiasm posts (lightly edited for clarity) about Sarkozy, who nonetheless is much better than any of the others, save Philippe de Villiers, whose time may well come:

1.

Here's a fine how-de-doo. Sarkozy, on whom so many hopes were placed, comes down on the side of equality of outcome, and does not dare touch the subject that needs to be touched: what is it about Islam that explains subpar economic performance, even in the Muslim lands that have no excuse, for they have received nearly $10 trillion dollars over the past 34 years and have failed everywhere to create the semblance of a modern economy. Nor does he dare touch on what explains the dismal performance of Muslim immigrants, compared to other non-Muslim immigrants -- Hindus, Vietnamese Buddhists and Christians, Chinese -- all over Europe. What is it about Islam that stands a permanent obstacle to integration with Infidels? Could it be, might it be, the very attitudes of hostility and even murderous hatred that one can find set out in Qur'anic passages, in Hadith stories, in details of the life of Muhammad set out in the Sira? No, none of that for Sarkozy.

And what a surprise to see the deplorable Dominique de Villepin stand up for -- well, essentially, for the grandes ecoles, and the meritocracy of examinations, and Long live the khagne! Long live the agregation! For if that goes, then the entire cult of intelligence and merit goes with it. And even though there are plenty of reasons to deplore the recent examples of graduates of ENA and suchlike, the destruction of the examination system, and the obstacle course set up in its place, would be the last nail in the coffin of Jules Ferry and la carriere ouverte aux talents, as well as of the cartable for the little ones, and the cahier, and the cahier de vacances, and the bac, and everything that is left to which even D. de V. sees has its points.

But he, too, does not dare explain what it is about Islam that stunts mental growth, or that prevents genuine integration of Muslims in a society where they do not receive what they regard as their due -- that due being, in the end, the modification over time of that Infidel society to accommodate Muslim demands at every level, until, as has happened everywhere that Muslims become a majority or a too-powerful minority, Islam comes to dominate and Muslims rule. It does not always take place through outright military conquest. See the East Indies, where traders from the Hadramaut settled in Java, and one thing led to another, with the results that can be observed.

[Posted by: Hugh at November 26, 2005 07:26 PM]

2.

Le Pen is disreputable in a hundred collaborationist, poujadist ways. Philippe De Villiers is fine, far more perceptive than Sarkozy, in whom so many (possibly misplaced) hopes have been placed. Some lepenistes apparently believe that Philippe De Villiers is doing Chirac's work for him, but this is never quite explained, since Chirac will soon be out of office, trying to stay out of jail.

It is Le Pen who has been inconsistent. He stood stoutly by Saddam Hussein, and appears to find the Muslim Arabs perfectly acceptable in the conduct of their Lesser Jihad against Israel, possibly a reflection of his most unsavory aspect. The best thing that could happen now for the emergence of a sensible anti-Islam movement in France would be the disappearance of Le Pen, and those of his supporters who supported him slightly or very unwillingly, malgre eux, can turn their attention, and support, to Philippe De Villiers, to give him power that he can trade on.

[Posted by: Hugh at October 28, 2006 1:08 AM]

3.

Sarkozy is good, but Philippe de Villiers is better. One hopes that Sarkozy will not engage in any idiotic "reaching out" to the "youths" in the "banlieues," but instead will make sure that they know that a different view of things now prevails, and the nonsense of the past will no longer be tolerated. Sarkozy was very good on television with the sinister Tariq Ramadan (for whom the jig is up in France, and in Switzerland, which is why he moved on to a temporary post in England, and hopes to take his show on the road to credulous America, where willfully naive Scott Appleby and Notre Dame still await him -- or so he devoutly believes).

Sarkozy has spoken in the past about the possibility of "integrating" the Muslims of France, and has even suggested the desirability of special programs to favor them in employment and with a kind of affirmative action in the schools. He still doesn't realize that teaching Believers French, teaching them about French culture, will not make them any better able to accept Infidel institutions, or make them necessarily loyal to the Infidel nation-state of France, but will assuredly provide many with the tools to better conduct Da'wa, to better promote their own, Muslim, aims. Such courses will be akin to those KGB schools for spies, where the spies were taught the languages and cultures of the West -- but still remained loyal to the Soviet system. Putin, for example, knows German perfectly. He knew exactly how to fit in to East Germany (and there were other KGB agents like him in what was then West Germany). But those KGB agents were not "integrated" into the West, though they were living in that West, and had been taught all about it.

Sarkozy must be very careful. And not hesitate to turn that ship of state completely around so that it rises higher in the water. The motto of the city of Paris, quondam Lutetia -- fluctuat nec mergitur (it bobs up and down on the waves, but doesn't sink, as if Paris were a bar of Ivory soap) just will not do, not for Paris, and not for France.

"Not sinking" isn't enough of a goal. Nor will the faith in making France "prosperous" again sufficient. The Muslim presence is, of course, an enormous economic weight, and drain on the welfare state. But more importantly, it is a great political, social, civilizational weight, a general demoralizer for those who see the problem, and those who perform the mental equivalent of salti mortali in order not to see it.

Sarkozy can help to disabuse the permanent French establishment about the Deux-Rives notion, that somehow France, or France as the leader of Europe, shares a civilization with the Arab Muslims of North Africa (google "Deux-rivistes" and "Jihad Watch"), and that the differences are merely those of that pesky Mediterranean in the middle. And assorted olivier-roys and gilles-kepels should lose their positions of unmerited and baleful influence, and if possible, their government employment at one of those many Centres de Recherches Scientifiques that provide sinecures for so many of the well-degreed and well-connected.

[Posted by: Hugh at May 7, 2007 10:28 AM]

Posted by: Hugh at March 6, 2008 11:53 PM

Sarkozy is busy with Club Med.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,539247,00.html

I guess Club Med will be a holiday resort to top them all.

Posted by: pr126 at March 7, 2008 2:12 AM

Obama or Clinton would say this.

Today’s world remains confronted by the ongoing threat of Islamic fascism, a new and quite unfamiliar assault on our values and way of life.

It relies on indiscriminate terror without regard to the identity or faith of its victims.

It also calculates that it is the nature of western societies to grow weary of long struggles and protracted debates. They produce, over time, a growing pressure for resolution or accommodation.

The particular challenge posed by extremist Islam means therefore that more than ever before continued cultural self-belief is critical to national strength.

Ronald Reagan and that other great warrior in our cause, Margaret Thatcher, taught us many things.

One of them was to remain culturally assertive, to understand always the importance of self belief in the psyche of a nation; to be willing to stand against the fashion of the time.

In his book “The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister” John O’Sullivan wrote of Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher “all three were handicapped by being too sharp, clear and definite in an age of increasingly fluid identities and sophisticated doubts. Put simply that Wojtyla was too Catholic, Thatcher too conservative and Reagan too American”.

O’Sullivan was speaking of a time when the views of all three were still largely unheeded.

Instead of bending they remained resolute and, as we gratefully know, their subsequent leadership permanently changed the world for the better.

When Ronald Reagan said “Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall” the left-liberals shuffled their feet, but as we know he meant it.

His historic achievement, through a massive build up in United States’ military strength (especially his persistent promotion of the Strategic Defence Initiative), in forcing the Soviets to confront their own internal weakness thus leading to the implosion of their empire – delivered the most profound political development in my lifetime.

It was his unapologetic American character that really won me. In my years in politics I have seen or heard a no more evocative political slogan than that of “Morning in America” in 1984.

In a brilliant phrase it encapsulated simple patriotism, a confident but not arrogant assertion of the great values of American life and importantly told the American people that their country had emerged from the long post-Vietnam self flagellation.

When Ronald Reagan died Colin Powell reminded us that in the early 1980s military personnel often went to work in civilian clothes, such was the mindset of the time.

That was just one element of the cultural trepidation that President Reagan confronted and overcame.

In the protracted struggle against Islamic extremism there will be no stronger weapon than the maintenance by western liberal democracies of a steadfast belief in the continuing worth of our own national value systems. And where necessary a soaring optimism about the future of freedom and democracy.

We should not think that by trading away some of the values which have made us who we are will buy us either immunity from terrorists or respect from noisy minorities.

If the butter of common national values is spread too thinly it will disappear altogether.

We should not forget that it is the values of our societies that terrorists despise most. That is why we should never compromise on them.

Obama/Clinton would say this.

Posted by: ericthekuffar at March 7, 2008 12:46 PM

Sorry that was a direct quote from John Howard. I cannot write like that.

Posted by: ericthekuffar at March 7, 2008 12:50 PM

Sarkozy is not stupid . He knows the problem and he already did something about it.
He warned the islamic leaders in France that they will have to agree to an Islam from France,
he signed a bill allowing to deport 22000 illegal immigrants in 2008.
He is trying to impose the knowledge of Shoa in elementary school.and he made it clear that the teacher at school does not replace the priest.
By speaking about this movie , he is simply using diplomacy the French way,
You just dont jump with your two feet in the mud. you try first to avoid the splash.
Give the man a chance,he might have some marital problems . who does not?and if he has an extra glass of wine once in a while . it is ok .
It is healthier that cocacola. He needs time and help not critics
You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.

Posted by: Tartine at March 7, 2008 7:50 PM