French minister tells Muslims to speak properly

[Lady Macbeth]

PARIS (Reuters) - A junior French minister has told young Muslims living in France they should dress properly, find a job and stop speaking slang.



Opposition politicians from the left denounced the comments by the minister for families, Nadine Morano, as racist.

The highly outspoken Morano, who is a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's inner circle, made the remarks on Monday evening in a small town in eastern France during a government-inspired debate on national identity.

"We are not putting young Muslims on trial. I respect their situation. What I want is for them to feel French because they are French," she said in a recording played on French radio.

"I want them to love France when they live here, to find work and not to speak in slang," she said, adding: "They shouldn't put their caps on back to front."

The comments tapped into stereotypical perceptions of youths from tough suburbs on the fringes of France's big cities, many of whom are from an immigrant background.

However, back-to-front caps, baggy trousers and a distinctive form of slang known as "verlan," once associated with those suburbs, have long since spread to high schools around the country and to youths of all backgrounds.

Anti-racism groups and Socialist politicians accused Morano of stoking racial tensions and said the government should abandon its series of highly controversial national identity debates before they provoked a violent backlash.

"This is a political operation designed to pit French people against each another and to create a war of culture and identity," said Socialist parliamentarian Arnaud Montebourg.
The human rights group SOS Racisme urged Prime Minister Francois Fillon to intervene and bring his cabinet to order.

Morano's office said the minister's words had been taken out of context.

Some five million Muslims live in France, the largest such community in Europe. Many of them are immigrants from former French colonies in North and West Africa.

Sarkozy's government has tightly linked the issues of immigration and integration and launched the national identity debate last month, playing on a theme that had served Sarkozy well during his successful 2007 election campaign.

Critics say the countrywide discussions will simply open a Pandora's box of prejudice and extremism.

French minister tells Muslims to speak properly | Reuters

[Solid Beast]

Burning cars and shops in : 10...9....8....

[Solid Beast]

These politicians are unbelievably stupid, their minds are living in a France that stopped existing after the pull out from Africa. Way to talk down to your constituents, you floosy c***. You are the minister of families, not the minister of fashion and passing scathing judgments! Next time I go to France I will be sure to wear my cap backwards and baggy clothes, just to make a point.

[Neo]

I'm all for integration. Respect the country you live in or move back to where you came from, simple as that.

[Solid Beast]

Originally Posted by Neo

I'm all for integration. Respect the country you live in or move back to where you came from, simple as that.

Completely agree with you Neo when it comes to things such as a foreigner who hates his adopted country or is unwilling to open up their mind and heart to accept at least some of the surrounding culture and accept it! But in my opinion the context of this specific incident is slightly different. France is a large multicultural and democratic republic now, how can one expect the youth of African and Asian background to respect their system when it is telling them they are different and bad for the country? Things like changing their clothing and street slang would be similar to a U.S. Congressman saying that black kids should stop listening to rap and committing crimes with their big baggy jeans and Nike shoes on. Shall we also tell them to go back to Africa? No because in fact what you have seen is the beauty in the U.S. is that many subcultures and subgroups now exist and are all fully integrated within society with their own unique traits because the government stopped trying to censor music and their adoptive lifestyles such as speaking in slangs, wearing outlandish clothing and their ethnic backgrounds. If you look at Hawaii, an overwhelming majority of the residents there speak their own mixture of English and native tongue with their own set of customs and culture and this has trickled down to the gora as well. France should really grow a brain, in fact I think it is something common in Europe just from my observations during travels.

[Al-Zakir]

Originally Posted by Lady Macbeth

PARIS (Reuters) - A junior French minister has told young Muslims living in France they should dress properly, find a job and stop speaking slang.






"We are not putting young Muslims on trial. I respect their situation. What I want is for them to feel French because they are French," she said in a recording played on French radio.

"I want them to love France when they live here, to find work and not to speak in slang," she said, adding: "They shouldn't put their caps on back to front."

I agree with her statement if it's true. They need to speak and dress proper if are to succeed. I myself encounter many of our fellow brothers act like black american(hip hop culture) that turn off main stream americans.

[DarkStar]

The Algerians in France are probably the most integrated of all muslim populations in the West. They talk about speaking french, when even people in Algeria speak french.

If the problem is dress and accent, then why is it that French algerian kids with university education are four times more likely to be unemployed or rejected for an interview? Is the minister going to suggest that university graduates can also not speak properly, or wear baseball caps?

The problem in france is that they do not believe in the multi-cultural paradigm of the US and UK, but rather want everyone to assimilate. Assimilation being letting go of any cultural, religious, social, customal trait that is 'foreign' and becoming purely 'French' in heart, soul, and name. There is no tolerance for difference and no respect for diversity, especially in the big urban centers like Paris, Marseille, etc.

[Al-Zakir]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

The problem in france is that they do not believe in the multi-cultural paradigm of the US and UK, but rather want everyone to assimilate. Assimilation being letting go of any cultural, religious, social, customal trait that is 'foreign' and becoming purely 'French' in heart, soul, and name. There is no tolerance for difference and no respect for diversity, especially in the big urban centers like Paris, Marseille, etc.

Another word. They are fascist when comes to "French culture."

[Solid Beast]

Originally Posted by Al-Zakir

I agree with her statement if it's true. They need to speak and dress proper if are to succeed. I myself encounter many of our fellow brothers act like black american(hip hop culture) that turn off main stream americans.

It personally used to bother me but not anymore, they are fully entitled to dress and act how they wish, and any success they have in their professional lives must be solely based upon their capabilities and achievements, nothing else. If they want to look clownish and unprofessional that only frees up the market for people like me and you. However most of these people are just youth, they are not applying for a position as portfolio manager at a marketing firm for example.

If he/she is dressed like a "gangsta" doesn't mean he/she won't be a decent and caring human being with emotions too. However if these people are dressed in certain ways to intimidate innocents or act negatively towards the rest of society, they might make the wrong guy angry (such as myself) and will be taken care of before the government can get a hand on them. Society filters much of the residue out sometimes, but here is a quote I kept close to heart since my 1st grade teacher taught me...

Never judge a book by it's cover