The New York Times has published an opinion article by the supposedly “right wing” leader of France’s fast-growing nationalist party, and the article body-slams President Barack Obama’s reaction to the jihadi murder of eight left-wing journalists in Paris.
“Let us call things by their rightful names. … France, land of human rights and freedoms, was attacked on its own soil by a totalitarian ideology: Islamic fundamentalism,” says the Jan. 18 op-ed by Marine Le Pen, head of the National Front, which won 25 percent of the popular vote in the May 2014 election for seats in the European parliament.
The newspaper’s decision to prominently publish her article is remarkable, partly because Le Pen has long been excoriated by progressives as a “hater” for wanting France to be French, and for threatening the political power of France’s establishment politicians and top government managers. Le Pen’s party opposes large-scale immigration, but it also favors a left-of-center economic policy featuring some protectionism and much government regulation. The party has repudiated prior anti-Semitism.
The decision is also notable because the newspaper’s progressive editors fiercely support large-scale immigration into the United States.
Also, the newspaper’s decision to print Le Pen’s article is also a disguised but large rebuke to Obama.
The article was published only two days after Obama again refused to admit that the jihadi attacks emerge from Islam.
In a Jan. 16 press conference with the British prime minister, Obama repeatedly evaded any recognition of Islam’s role for the many jihadi attacks against non-Muslims, including the shocking Jan. 7 murder of the eight journalists at the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
“This phenomenon of violent extremism — the ideology, the networks, the capacity to recruit young people — this has metastasized and it is widespread, and it has penetrated communities around the world,” Obama said at the press conference.
In the attack on the journalists, the jihadis shouted “Allah Akbar,” or “Allah [the Muslim deity] is Supreme Over You.” Also, one of the attackers killed four Jews at a supermarket.
Obama has long refused to recognize Islam’s role in jihadi violence. On Jan. 11, he underlined that by refusing to send any top officials attended the memorial march for the 17 French journalists, cops and bystanders killed by the jihadis in a series of attacks. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris during the march, but did not attend.
In contrast, since the murder of their fellow liberals in France, a stream of establishment figure, left-wingers and liberals have recently stepped up to admit that Islam is the source of terrorism.
British Prime Minster David Cameron, for example, repeatedly tagged Islam during the Jan. 16 press conference. “Let’s never lose sight of the real enemy here, which is the poisonous narrative that’s perverting Islam,” Cameron said. “That is what we have to focus on. … Let’s never lose sight of the real — the heart of the matter.”
Le Pen’s article in The New York Times repeated her standard nationalist call for an exclusion of Islam’s foreign ideology, but also appealed to liberals by including repeated references to France’s history and by leading with a quote from a left-wing writer who is much admired by progressive intellectuals.
“‘To misname things is to add to the world’s unhappiness.’ Whether or not Albert Camus really did utter these words, they are an astonishingly apt description of the situation in which the French government now finds itself,” Le Pen began her article.
“I began by saying that we must call things by their names. I will end by saying that some names speak for themselves. The name of our country, France, still rings out like a call to freedom,” she said in her final sentence.
Her article, however, called for policies that are increasingly popular in mainstream Europe and the United States, by which are furiously opposed by progressives.
“The dogma of the free movement of peoples and goods [across borders] is so firmly entrenched among the leaders of the European Union that the very idea of border checks is deemed to be heretical,” she wrote.
“The massive waves of immigration, both legal and clandestine, our country has experienced for decades have prevented the implementation of a proper assimilation policy. … Without a policy restricting immigration, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to fight against communalism and the rise of ways of life,” she wrote. “An additional burden is mass unemployment, which is itself exacerbated by immigration.”
“French foreign policy has … plunged France into serious geopolitical incoherence from which it is struggling to extricate itself,” she said.
The newspaper’s various readers had sharply divided reactions to Le Pen’s appearance in the New York Times.
Some were shocked that the newspaper’s’ editor had allowed Le Pen to state her case. “Since we are going to call things ‘by their names’, let’s begin by calling Mme. Le Pen’s National Front by what it is: a xenophobic, anti-immigrant, extreme right wing party whose founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is well known as a hate monger and Holocaust denier,” said “bls,” from Davis, Calif.
Some express disagreement with Le Pen’s recommendations. “At the root of home-grown radicalism, whether in France or any other country, are economic and social discrimination,” said a commentator named Claus Gehner, who listed his location as Seattle and Germany. “In the long run these problems can only be solved by making good on the rhetoric of multi-cultural societies based on economic equality and mutual respect.”
Many declared their surprised agreement. “This left-wing daughter of left-wing Francophile intellectuals finds herself frighteningly in step with this woman whose beliefs my American “comrades” would have me dismiss out of hand,” said a “DrB” from Brooklyn. “It really matters not at this point who created the beast; it is at our doors, and we must stop it from coming any further in.”
“Could I really be agreeing with the head of the Front National Party?” asked Rebecca. “France has it’s specific cultural beliefs and anyone who wants to make France their home must respect and abide by those beliefs.”
“As a French expatriate, it truly pains me that we’ve come to the point where I have to agree with Marine Le Pen. … [She] has had one of the most cogent responses to this horrific crisis, and that is simply terrifying,” said “C. M.,” now living in New York.
Others complimented the newspaper for adding some political diversity to its op-ed articles. “I am pleased to see that the Times has printed this editorial,” said “David” in New Jersey. “Ms. Le Pen is constantly branded as an “extremist” or a “racist”. By printing editorials such as this, readers have a chance to judge her policies themselves, rather than reacting to smear labels.”