PARIS — France assigned 100 police officers to investigate the desecration on Sunday of 148 Muslim graves in a war cemetery in northern France. President Nicolas Sarkozy called the attack “sordid” and expressed “profound outrage” after it was discovered that vandals had hung a pig’s head from one tombstone, desecrated others and wrote slogans insulting Justice Minister Rachida Dati, who was born in France to parents from Northern Africa.
The graves were in the Muslim section of Notre Dame de Lorette, among France’s largest war cemeteries, near the northern town of Arras. The dead are mostly from World War I, and the Muslim graves, representing the dead of colonial armies, are turned toward Mecca.
~~ New York Times; April 7, 2008
Upon reading this nasty piece of news from "Old Europe," I can't help but think of
the lyrics of a catchy and razor-sharp tune by that inimitable reactionary, Billy Bragg, upon whose music I cut my leftwing teeth lo two decades ago:
At night the Baby Brotherhood and the Inter City Crew
Fill their pockets up with calling cards
And paint their faces red white and blue
Then they go out seeking different coloured faces
And anyone else that they can scare
And they salute the foes their fathers fought
By raising their right hands in the air
Oh look how my country's patriots are hunting down below
What do they know of England who only England know
3 comments:
"The dead are mostly from World War I, and the Muslim graves, representing the dead of colonial armies, are turned toward Mecca."
Seems like the French of the World War I era were more comfortable with Moslems in their midst than our contemporaries. I don't understand why anyone would vandalize a cemetery. Horrible world we live in sometimes.
Billy and Nina all on the same day. If you'd not won over my broken, bitter heart by now you just did. Billy's take on "The Internationale" is my favorite version of that tune. I always want to blast it on a boom box when I'm transiting through Bush International in Houston.
What's the French equivalent of one's BNP boot boy fantasy?
Post a Comment