LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: LE PEN EXPOSES HER ANTI-SEMITISM UNDER THE VEIL OF EQUALITY

Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter Marine, leader of the far-right National Front, wants France to ban the wearing of yarmulkes in public and kosher food in schools

Marine Le Pen is just following in the footsteps of her outspoken anti-Semitic father, the founder and former leader of the National Front, who was convicted of racism.

While their religious practices require Orthodox and Hassidic Jews to cover their heads at all times, and the religious practices of fundamentalist Muslims require that women must wear full-face coverings in public, there is a world of difference between small Jewish skull caps and Islamic veils that could be worn to conceal male terrorists disguised as women.

FRENCH NATIONAL FRONT LEADER MARINE LE PEN CALLS FOR BAN ON WEARING OF THE JEWISH SKULLCAP IN PUBLIC – ‘IN THE NAME OF EQUALITY’
After ban on full-face coverings – including the Islamic veil – came into force in France last year Marine Le Pen is now calling for a ban on all religious headgear, as well as kosher and halal food in schools

By Peter Allen

Mail Online
September 23, 2012

Far right politician Marine Le Pen has caused outrage across France by calling for the banning of the Jewish skullcap in public.

The leader of National Front won a fifth of the popular vote during the first round of May’s presidential election on a largely anti-Muslim immigration agenda.

Now in an interview she has called not just for a ban on the wearing of Islamic veils in public, but also the kippah – leading to France’s most senior Rabbi to describe her view as ‘deeply deplorable’.

Her inflammatory words come at a time of heightened tensions caused by a Paris satirical magazine’s decision to publish a series of cartoons mocking both Islam and Judaism.

One of the images in Charlie Hebdo shows a Prophet Mohammed character being pushed around in a wheelchair by a Rabbi.

Ms Le Pen told Le Monde that all religious headwear should be banned ‘in shops, on public transport and on the streets’.

‘It’s obvious that if the veil is banned, the kippah should be banned in public as well,’ she said. The French parliament passed a ban on full-face coverings, including the Islamic veil in 2010 and the law came into force last year.

Miss Le Pen, whose infamous father Jean-Marie Le Pen is a convicted racist and anti-Semite, also called for a ban on public prayers.

And she said kosher and halal foods should be outlawed in schools, along with foreign governments being allowed to pay for mosques.

‘Jewish skullcaps are obviously not a problem in our country,' she said, insisting nevertheless that France has to ‘ban them in the name of equality’.

‘The situation in our country has changed. We used to have a fragile balance between religions, but massive immigration has changed that,' Ms Le Pen said.

‘Veils and jilbabs are putting us under pressure. France is a victim of sectarian political groups due to the ruling parties’ incapacity to deal with the problem.

‘What would people say if I had only asked to ban Muslim clothing? They would burn me as a Muslim hater.’

President Francois Hollande attacked Ms Le Pen’s comments.

‘Everything that tears people apart, opposes them and divides them is inappropriate,' he said. 'We must apply the rules, the only rules that we know - the rules of the Republic and secularism.’

On Friday Mr Hollande opened a new Holocaust memorial in Paris, commemorating the thousands of Jews who were sent to their deaths after being held at the Drancy internment camp.

The camp was run by French policemen working alongside the SS, and rolling stock from France’s national railway, SNCF, was used to take victims to Germany.

Jean-Francois Cope, leader of the opposition UMP party, was similarly outraged, saying Ms Le Pen barely knew what secularism was.

Mr Cope said: ‘Marine Le Pen wants to ban any signs of religion on the streets, starting with the veil and the kippah.

‘By doing this, she shows she does not understand anything about secularism. Secularism is not about the eradication of all religious expressions in society.’

Gilles Bernheim, France’s Chief Rabbi, said: ‘Mixing up the tradition of the skullcap and the veil only generates more confusion in people’s minds. I deeply deplore her statement.’

And Richard Prasquier, leader of the CRIF Jewish council in France, said the Ms Le Pen’s claims showed there were ‘secular fanatics just as there are religious fanatics'.

'Obviously, I am hostile to both,’ he said.

The CFCM, France’s main Muslim council, meanwhile said that Le Pen wanted to ‘set up a totalitarian regime in France.’

There are around half-a-million Jews in France, many of them living in major cities like Paris, where skull caps have been a familiar sight for centuries.