Bruno Megret, a French far-right leader and presidential candidate, seized on the September 11 attacks as the basis for a nationwide campaign, demanding "Islamists -- out of France," and warning of an impending war of civilizations.
On Sunday Megret chose the highly symbolic venue of the site of the battle of Poitiers -- where the Frankish king Charles Martel defeated Arab invaders in 732 AD -- to deliver an incendiary address what he saw as the dangers of an Islamic resurgence.
"The battle of Poitiers was the clash of two civilizations, the European Christian civilization against the Arabo-Muslim civilization, and this antagonism has traveled through space and time," Megret told a rally at the village of Moussais-La-Bataille, central France.
"Alas, the clash continues still, because Islam ... is today re-awakening with a new demographic, political and religious vitality -- and it is back on the offensive.
"In line with the precepts of the Koran, it seeks to impose itself in new lands wherever it can," he said, referring to the key Islamic holy book.
"Look at the map: 95 percent of armed conflicts are taking place in areas where Islam is trying to advance at the expense of other cultures and civilizations," he said.
Megret, 52, founded the National Republican Movement (MNR) in 1999 when he split from the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The party holds two mayorships but no seats in parliament, and in the 1999 European elections it won 3.28 percent of the vote.
In a second speech Sunday in the city of Poitiers, Megret warned of an "Islamic fifth column" inside France, and said there was a direct connection between the suicide attacks in New York and Washington and violence in France's high immigration suburbs, or banlieues.
"Today the danger comes not just from Kabul but from Mantes-La-Jolie [a town west of Paris]; our high-rise estates have become powder-kegs like in Palestine; the attacks on the Pentagon are of the same nature as those carried out daily in our suburbs on policemen, firemen and all the representatives of the state," he said.
The MNR's campaign is under the slogan "Islamists -- out of France. Order with Megret." Posters, T-shirts and the party's web site bear an image of a minaret crossed out with a red line, as on a road sign.
Megret said his bid for the presidency in April's elections would center on the need to push back "the tide of immigration ... which engenders Islamism, insecurity, unemployment and taxes” -- PARIS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
