Saturday, December 26, 2015

A Quick Run Around the Web--December 26, 2015


Up to 600 French protesters desecrated a Muslim prayer hall in Corsica in a revenge attack prompted by the wounding of two firefighters and a police officer.

The furious mob smashed the prayer hall's glass door, ransacked the interior and left around 50 partially-burned Korans littering the street overnight.

Chanting 'Arabs get out!' and 'This is our home', protesters marched through the streets of the French Mediterranean island's capital, Ajaccio.
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    The violence began on the night of December 24, when two firefighters were 'ambushed' by 'several hooded youths' in the low-income neighbourhood of Jardins de L'Empereur.
      It escalated when several hundred people gathered in front of police headquarters in the capital city, before marching through the streets to the housing estate where the attack on the firefighters took place.
        They then launched the violent assault on the local prayer room.
          Interior Minister Bernard Cazaneuve insisted the perpetrators of both incidents would be tracked down and arrested, adding that there was no place for 'racism and xenophobia' in France.
          Islam is not a race; and being upset at the coddling of violent gangs comprised of young Muslim men is not an irrational fear. The authorities should instead be looking at why hundreds of Corsicans felt it necessary to take the law into their own hands.
          The potential move puts an even greater spotlight on immigration in the 2016 campaign that has already been infused with anti-immigrant rhetoric, originating largely from Donald Trump.
          In other words, the point of such an exercise (whether or not it actually goes forward) is to get out the vote for Hillary by emphasizing what could happen under a Republican presidency.

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