Sarkozy with Leftist Human Rights Defender v. Communautarism-Turkish Ghetto: Integrate Immigrants !

    A well known Center-Right Political Leader, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking tonight in a large public TV program, was unexpectedly joined in his strong denunciation of Lobbies which oblige Immigrants to stick together in Cultural Ghettos formed by a MultiCultural "Communautarism", i.e. in separate Communities, and was surprisingly supported in his plaidoyerie in favor of Immigrants' "Integation", by a ...Leftist Intellectual, former Resistant and Deportee to NAZI Camps, f. Ambassador to the UN and writer of Books on Human Rights, who was honored by UNESCO and the CoE, Stephan Hessel, speaking the same evening in an event organized by the Socialist Mayor of Strasbourg and the CoE...

    Agreeing with German Chancellor Angie Merkel and New British Prime Minister David Cameroon, Sarkozy stressed from the outset, in reply to French Citizens' questions, that, in his view,  - "MultiCulturalism utterly failed, because some were more concerned with the Identity of immigrants who were arriving, while they didn't care enough for the Identity of their Host Country".

      -"We don't want, and, at any case, it's not France's project, to have a Society where (differend) Communities co-exist, side by side", the French President underlined.

 - Because, "when someone comes in France, he/she accepts to become integral part of the unique existing Community, which is the National Community (of the Host Country). And if he doens't accept that, then, he can't be welcome in France", he warned.

     - "The Countries, as the UK or the USA, who thought to develop this MultiCulturalism, i.e. Community by Community, reinforced Extremisms". Because "each one, thinking that he belonge to a (separate/differend) national Community, developed his Defenses against the others", he denounced.

- "But, we (France) don't want that !". . It's perfectly clear that we don't want that !", Sarkozy strongly rejected any Communautarism.

- Therefore, "I share the views of (German Chancellor) Mrs Merkel and of (Brittish Prime Minister) Mr Cameroon", (who had both recently denounced the fact that "Multi-Culturalism failed", stessing the need for immigrant's "Integration", instead of "living together" in separate "Communties" ).

To be honest, "this raises the question of Islam, and (of) our Muslim compatriots. Refuse to raise that, under pretext that Extremists from both sides might exploit it, is an error  : Problems aren't resolved by refusing to speak about them.

-"My position is the following : Our Muslim compatriots must be able to live and practice their Religion as anyone among our compatriots, Jew, Protestant, Catholic, etc.. But it can only be a French Islam, and not an Islam in France. This isn't possible", he stressed.

"That's why, f.ex., I pushed to vote the Law prohibiting Burqua: We don't want in France women with full, total (islamic) scurf". "We don't want, in France, that some may pray, conspicuously, at the Street".

(On the contrary) we say that it's normal in France to have religious buildings where our compatriots can celebrate their faith. We are a Laic country, with a separation between State and Religion, Pray doesn't insult anyone".

"But we don't want, inside the French Republic's territory, to have an Aggressive Religious Proselytism.

- "No Hypocrisy.... When someone lives in France, he/she brings something, but he also respects its way of life. The French National Community doesn't want to change its way of life".

- "F.ex. we can't make compromises on the Equality between Women and Men. The Freedom of young Girls to go to School. We don't want, f.ex., that Imams' might preach Violence. We don't want that ! It doesn't exist !  Also, f.ex., we don't want to change the Calendar", etc.

- "We consider that Religion is respectable, but it's part of private life, not of the public area", the French President reiterated.
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    - "Without speaking of Ghetto, how is it possible to integrate Immigrants when they are all grouped together in a same district ?", questioned Sarkozy a French Citizen of Algerian origin. "On the contrary, when I came to France, aged 8, all my Family was living in the middle of French People, speaking French", she noted.

      Sarkozy didn't deny that problem, but replied in substance that, in order to avoid such "Ghettos", Immigrants should be integrated with a Job and a Home. And, since this isn't currently possible here, particularly during the present Global Crisis added to previous Mass arrivals, the only praticable solution now passes through a kind of Doube-track action, using both the control of Migratory flux, and the current 2011 French G8  - G20 Chairmanship in order to boost the Development of poor areas like Africa, etc., so that their population wouldn't have to emigrate abroad just to find a living.

    I.e. an orginal synhesis of a traditional "Right"'s Speach ("monitor Migratory flux"), with  a traditional "Left's idea (Development of poor countries)...

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 "EuroFora" remembers that the 1st Warnings against Social and Political Risks of "Cultural Ghettos", where some Foreign Governments pushed "their" Immigrants to aggregate, (condemning Children to lose opportunities in Education, imposing Foreign TV, Media, Language, etc., spying and close monitoring by Foreign States' Agents, who apparntly  abused such "Ghettos" in order to massively interfere in the internal affairs of their Host Country), had been initially denounced inside the CoE by Experienced Danish and other Scandinavian Experts, who had a large opportunity to study such phenomena, particularly among Turkish groups as they said, already more than 12 Years earlier ...

    But it was certainly a big Surprise for all involved, to find, the same day that French President Sarkozy strongly denounced such Negative and Dangerous "Communautarisms" in general, that even an unquestiionable Personality of the Left, long-time supporter of the Socialist Party, even former candidate of "Greens", partisan of a Leftist alternative in next years' Elections in France, former Resistant and Prisoner of NAZI Extermination Camps, f. Ambassador to the UN, writer and mlitant for the Universal Declaration of Human Righs, as well as for a renaissance of the French National Resistance Council's programme, UNESCO 2008 Prize for Human Rights' promotion, who was invited by the CoE to be the main Speaker in its "Strasbourg's Dialogues" event, destinated to promote Democratic and Human Rights Values, warmly welcomed by the Socialist Mayor of the City, Roland Ries, with a Humanist Poem of Appolinaire, to which he replied with a similar one but longer, adding also a Hoederlin's poem from his Franco-German Family, neverheless, clearly stressed his agreement with the substance of Sarkozy's criticism against "Comunautarism", stressing the need to "Integrate" Immigrants, precisely as Center-Right's leading politicians underline today in France, Germany and even the UK... (See supra).

    Hessel's unexpected reaction against "Communautarist" Cultural Ghettos, which was made even after explicit and topical references to "Turkish Districs" (See infra), threw cold water among an obviously "Socialist" Majority of Spectators, who systematically applauded any word favorable to the Socialist Party, but suddenly remained excepionaly silent, apparently because they supported some Lobbies' suspected attempts, inside the Local Muncipality's "Socialist"/"Green" coalition, to impose, for the 1st time in History, to many Strasbourg's longtime Citizens, precisely such kind of "Turkish" and/or other "Ghetto Districts", with Turkish local Politicians, Turkish local "Security" officials, NGOs, etc., who came a few years earlier from elsewhere, and already started to spectacularly change, alter, ("mutate" would be more accurate...) the Demographic Composition of certain "targetted" Districts, that they suddenly started recently, only 1,5 Year after the last local elections, to look, more and more similar to ... the Middle East, Ankara, Istanbul or Pakistan (Mosque with Minarets, systematically ostensible Islamic Headscurfs, Djellabas, "Turkish belly danse", aggressions against Christian Churches, long-time Inhabitants intimidated, harassed and otherwise pushed to leave away, systematic massive arrivals of immigrants of similar origins etc. included)

  

    Astonishingly (for an Historic "Leftist"), the former Resistant and Prisoner of NAZI Concentration Camps, Franco-German Diplomat and Human Rights Defender, replied by a strong and crystal-clear Refusal of that kind of "Turkish (a.o.) Districts", that he condemned as an erroneous and dangerous "Communautarism" :

    -  It's "Right to stand for the Integration" of immigrants, because we have already seen that such "Communautarism" is a "Bad solution" , sharply stressed Hessel. ...

    - At any case, "it must not occur during a long period of time", he warned.

     - Even if  it might happen, at the beginning, for some immigrants to stick closely together because they don't know yet their Host Country and feel Strangers there for a while, nevertheless, if they don't mix up soon with other People, but persist to meet only between themselves, then, they are not going to be "integrated" in the society in which they live,  he denounced.

     - On the contrary, immigrants should, f.ex., join and participate into "Common Organizations", shared by all the People of their Host Country, (f.ex. Educative or Cultural Organizations, Sport Clubs, Trade Unions, Religious communities, Political Parties, etc), the experiened Hessel advised. Something which is in direct Opposition f.ex. to the .... "Turkish Immigrant Workers Association", "Turkish Youth", "Turkish Mosque", "Turkish Cultural Centre", "Turkish Cinema", etc. even ..."Turkish Football Club" (sic !),  as a French Lady from Strasbourg's outskirts earlier complained to "EuroFora" and other people, surprised by such an exceptionally stuborn and obviously excessive Turkish Nationalism of some groups, which is not seen (at least not at that level) in any other category of immigrants from various other States in the World...

    - Europe "must not fall to the same errors as the Anglosaxon Communautarism" of the last decades, the experienced Franco-German Writer and Diplomat warned, inevitably reminding to "EuroFora" a hallycinating spectacle, seen around London when we had lost our way at the Sub., partly closed a few days after the 2nd Deadly Terrorist Bombings of July 2005, and desperately searched how to run fast for the Press Coverage of a Political Meeting at the other side of Greater London, making the Mistake to get out at various erroneous Sub. Stops, where everything looked as if you were in ... Pakistan, or in Africa, or in Latin America, China, etc., according to the District in which you were walking....

    Something which we hadn't seen at all during many long Summers spend at the UK in the 1960ies and 1970ies, and was recently denounced also by the New British Prime Minister, David Cameron on 2011, while, in the meantime, several links of such "Cutural Ghetto"-Suburbs of London even with Extremists or Terrorists of various origins, (f.ex. Bin Landen himself, Tchetchens, 2005 Subway Bombers, would-be Hi-jackers, etc), added to a notoriously growing Educational and Social gap, proved even socially dangerous.

    - "However, in the USA, even if there might remain still some districts with predominant immigrant communities, nevertheless, most of them "have acquired a Culture of a Common Belonging, which makes them feel entirely American", Hessel rightfully observed.

    It's in Obama's hometown : Chicago, that "EuroFora" had, indeed, a good opportunity to be surprised by the fact that even some Young Immigrants of 2nd generation living and married with persons of same origin (but no more in "Ghettos", it's true), nevertheless, spontaneously revendicated and felt proud to "be American", as they said in front of us, back on 2005, during a visit after UNO's Heads of State/Government "Reform" Summit at New York.

    An aspiration or "feeling of common belonging" that Americans notoriously promoted among European and later African, Asian, Latino-American, a.o. immigrants particularly when it was urgently needed there in the Past in order to build a State from scratch : Something similar to what Europe obviously needs today, mutatis - mutandis, in order to build a New Kind of Community between Europeans...

  "EuroFora" was glad to find that spirit, f.ex., recently in the case of a Young Taxi Driver whose parents had come in Strasbourg from Morocco, but stressed that he felt proud to "be French", and thus fully European, having been born, educated, worked and married in Strasbourg, becoming so "integrated", even in practical issues, that he succeeded to immediately find an obscur address lost somewhere among the Hundreds of tiny villages around Strasbourg, where we had to run fast for the Press coverage of French President Sarkozy's speech to the "Rural World" :  Apparently, this young person of immigrant origin knew better Strasbourg's Countryside even than some "original" French friends who had honestly acknowledged that they ignored the details of that village, as we also did despite living in Strasbourg for more than 34 Years..

    What a lack that this young person had not been closed all his life into a cultural "Ghetto" !... Unlike another Taxi Driver, of a differend origin (notoriously fond of "Cultural Ghettos"), who had just got recently his licence, and proved, astonishingly, to be so ignorant of Strasbourg's map, that he wasn't even able to find ...the main entrance of the City's Hospital's Headquarters, leaving us for almost an Hour vainly waiting outside during an exceptionally cold Night plenty of Snow...