Text 14285, 83 rader
Skriven 2005-07-30 06:39:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: French
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Can you imagine the outcry from the ACLU, the left and others who hate 
America  against the Bush administration ?  But since the French did it, 
they will go mute...

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news
/2005/07/30/ncleric30.xml&site=5


France ejects 12 Islamic 'preachers of hate'
By Colin Randall in Paris
(Filed: 30/07/2005)

The gulf between British and French treatment of preachers of hatred and 
violence was thrown sharply into focus yesterday when France announced 
the summary expulsion of a dozen Islamists between now and the end of 
August.

A tough new anti-terrorism package was unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy, the 
interior minister and a popular centre-Right politician. 

   
His proposals reflect French determination to act swiftly against 
extremists in defiance of the human rights lobby, which is noticeably 
less vocal in France than in Britain.

Imams and their followers who fuel anti-western feeling among 
impressionable young French Muslims will be rounded up and returned to 
their countries of origin, most commonly in France's case to its former 
north African colonies.

Mr Sarkozy also revealed that as many as 12 French mosques associated 
with provocative anti-western preaching were under surveillance. Imams 
indulging in inflammatory rhetoric will be expelled even if their 
religious status is recognised by mainstream Muslim bodies. 

Those who have assumed French citizenship will not be protected from 
deportation. Mr Sarkozy said he will reactivate measures, "already 
available in our penal code but simply not used", to strip undesirables 
of their adopted nationality. "We have to act against radical preachers 
capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded," Mr Sarkozy 
told the French daily Le Parisien. 

The first to be caught in the new round of expulsions is an Algerian, 
Rena Ameuroud, whose brother Abderraham was jailed in France earlier 
this year for his part in a jihadist training exercise in the 
Fontainebleau forest south of Paris. He faces immediate deportation for 
allegedly urging fellow-worshippers at a Parisian mosque to engage in 
"holy war".

At least seven French nationals are now known to have been killed while 
fighting with anti-coalition insurgents in Iraq, in some cases as 
suicide bombers, the minister said. A further 10 are believed still to 
be there. France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population with 
estimates varying from five to nine million out of a population of 60 
million, has long prided itself on its stern approach to terrorism. 

Mr Sarkozy's crackdown on those "promoting radical Islamist polemic" was 
disclosed at the end of a week that began with French anger at Britain's 
failure to extradite the alleged financier of Islamist bombings in Paris 
in the mid-1990s. Rachid Ramda, 35, an Algerian, has been held for 10 
years while fighting attempts to return him to stand trial. Survivors 
and victims' relatives who gathered this week at the St Michel station 
in the heart of Paris to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the worst 
attack, which killed eight, called on Britain to "stop protecting" 
Ramda.

They are unimpressed by his supporters' claims that he is a "gentle and 
peaceful" man who devotes his time in the Belmarsh top-security jail in 
south-east London to learning the Koran by heart, studying English 
literature and comforting other Muslim prisoners. Charles Clarke, the 
Home Secretary, has approved Ramda's extradition - as did his 
predecessor David Blunkett - but his removal depends on High Court 
proceedings.

French ministers and commentators have long expressed exasperation at 
British handling of individuals who support terrorism, arguing that 
greater emphasis is being placed on their human rights rather than on 
security interests.

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