In France, a new youth movement is targeting the negative influence Islam is having on French society. Generation Identitaire (Generation Identity) has issued a video, Declaration of War, in response to what is perceived to be an Islamist war against Western society: “We are the generation who get killed for glancing at the wrong person, for refusing someone a cigarette, or having an ‘attitude’ that annoys someone.” Meanwhile, the establishment media are declaring the group to be “far right” and ignoring the circumstances which have led to the emergence of such a movement.
The event which has brought Generation Identitaire into the global spotlight is the construction of a mosque in the French city of Poitiers. On October 20, approximately 60 members of the youth organization occupied the mosque in order to protest the spreading influence of Islam within French society.
The youth group targeted the Poitiers mosque because of its proximity to the site of one of the most famous battles in European history. In A.D. 732, the Battle of Poitiers (which is also called the Battle of Tours) was the critical event which stopped the northward advance of Muslim armies which had already overtaken and brutalized Spain and were threatening to sweep through the rest of western Europe. Under the leadership of Charles Martel, the invading force was halted, but at a substantial cost in lives. Generation Idenitaire’s brief occupation of the mosque in Poitiers came on the anniversary of the famous battle, and was intended to remind their fellow citizens of the tremendous price paid in past generations to prevent the Islamization of the country.
A television report for France 24 provides an overview of the protest in Poitiers:
According to French media, protesters from a group called Generation Identity occupied the building site in a suburb of the town of Poitiers, western France, at around 6am.
They climbed onto the building’s roof and displayed a banner marked with “732 generation identity” in reference to the year 732, when Charles Martel halted the advance of the invading Muslim army to the north of Poitiers.
The group makes their views clear on their website, which bears the statement: “We do not want more immigration from outside Europe or new mosque construction on French soil”.
The protesters apparently took to social media site Twitter, declaring they would not be leaving the mosque until they were removed by the authorities.
But the demonstrators left the site around 1pm after reaching an agreement with police. Three members of the group were subsequently arrested.
Although the media has been quick to label the youth organization as “far right,” a recent scientific poll of public opinion in France finds their views to be well within the mainstream of a society that is wary of the growing influence of Islam. An article for Le Figaro gives the details of the study, which were also summarized by France 24:
Six out of ten French people believe the influence of Islam in France is “too big” and 43 percent see the religion as a “threat” to national identity, according to the results of an opinion poll published on Thursday.
The sensitive poll, which will likely cause ripples in a country home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, was carried out by Ifop polling institute for right-wing daily Le Figaro, which published the results under the headline “The image of Islam worsens in France”.
Only 17 percent of respondents believed Islam “enriched” France’s culture and 40 percent said it was neither a threat to the country’s national identity nor of benefit to its culture.
“Our poll demonstrates a hardening of French views towards this religion and a strengthening of a negative perception of Islam,” said Ifop’s Jérôme Fourquet on Thursday.…
Le Figaro’s survey reveals French opinion towards particular elements of the Islamic religion is also hardening, with 43 percent of people questioned saying they were opposed to the construction of mosques compared to 39 percent two years ago.
The number of respondents opposed to the wearing of the Islamic veil or headscarf in public has also risen also risen from 59 percent in 2010 to 63 percent.
Two thirds of people surveyed said they thought French Muslims and people of Muslim origin were not well integrated into French society. Among them, 68 percent blamed this lack of integration on Muslims’ “refusal to integrate”, while roughly half said they believed it was a result of “insurmountable cultural differences”.
A series of incidents throughout Europe in recent years have served to heighten concerns throughout the continent regarding the growing influence of Islam and sharia law. Nearly two years ago, The New American reported on tensions which were growing due to the refusal of Turks in both Austria and Germany to assimilate to European society. In 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan mocked the notion of assimilation, and hinted that his nation’s military might could pose a threat to the very nations which were now hosting so many of his citizens: “Now Turkey will at last start building its own war planes.” In the Netherlands, the Dutch Muslim Party has actively pushed for legislation which would limit free speech — including outlawing “blasphemy.”
Generation Identitaire is one of many groups giving voice to the fear that many of their fellow citizens feel. Their Declaration of War lists a catalog of examples of left-wing social engineering that members of the organization believe have undermined the foundations of French Society:
We are the generation of ethnic fracture, total failure of coexistence, and forced mixing of the races.
We are the generation doubly punished: Condemned to pay into a social system
so generous with strangers it becomes unsustainable for our own people.
We are the generation doubly punished: Condemned to pay into a social system so generous with strangers it becomes unsustainable for our own people. Our generation are the victims of the May ’68’ers who wanted to liberate themselves from tradition, from knowledge and authority in education.
But they only accomplished to liberate themselves from their responsibilities.We are sick and tired of your cowardice.
You are from the years of post-war prosperity, retirement benefits, S.O.S Racism and
“diversity,” sexual liberation and a bag of rice from Bernard Kouchner.
We are 25 percent unemployment, social debt, multicultural collapse and an explosion of anti-white racism.
We are broken families, and young French soldiers dying in Afghanistan.
You won’t buy us with a condescending look,
a state-paid job of misery and a pat on the shoulder.
We don’t need your youth-policies. Youth IS our policy.
Don’t think this is simply a manifesto. It is a declaration of war.
You are of yesterday, we are of tomorrow.
For a populace increasingly concerned about the future of its society and national identity, such a movement has the capacity to galvanize many members of the rising generation to publicly oppose the growing Islamization of France. The occupation of the mosque at Poitiers is hardly a reenactment of the famous battle once fought a few miles from that location, but for those who see themselves as inheritors of the legacy of Charles Martel, it is a start.
