Birds of a feather: Palin and Le Pen to appear at Oxford University
The President of French right wing party Front National Marine Le Pen and Tea Party activist and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin have been announced this afternoon as being among this term’s speakers at the Oxford Union. Front National, the third largest political party in France, is known for its policies with regards to immigration, crime and law-and-order. In May 2014, they gained 25 per cent of the vote in the European Union elections.
Le Pen has recently come under criticism for a speech, published by Front National on YouTube on 7th January, in which she said:”It is my responsibility to make sure that the fear is overcome. This attack must instead free our speech about Islamic fundamentalism. We must not be silenced… We must not be scared of saying the words: this is a terrorist attack carried out in the name of radical Islam.”
Palin, a Republican Party member, ran for Vice-president in 2008, and is also a supporter of the Tea Party Movement, which in 2010 she called the “future of politics in America”. She is a member of the National Rifle Association, opposes same-sex marriage, abortion – including in the case of rape – and opposed the 2010 health care reform package.
“The Union believes in the principle of freedom of speech and we would encourage all members who disagree with an invited speakers view to attend the event and question the speaker. We allow our members to meet people face to face and make their own minds up. We invite no speakers who do not accept the right of our members to question them. Marine Le Pen will be answering questions from the audience after her address.”
http://oxfordstudent.com/2015/01/16/union-defends-decision-to-host-nationalist-politicians/
I hope some in attendance "question" Palin and Le Pen to expose their hypocrisy. I suppose it makes sense to have representatives of both the French and American versions of the tea party/right wing populists.
= new reply since forum marked as read
College kids just want a break from intellectual knowledge every once in a while .With Palin and Le Pen they get a entertaining romp thru turd maggot land .
1. France’s Le Pen Says Torture Can Be ‘Useful’ to Fight Terrorism
The leader of France’s anti-immigrant, anti-European Union National Front, Marine Le Pen, said that torture can be sometimes “useful” to fight terrorism, in response the U.S. Senate report on the CIA.
“There can be cases -- when there is a bomb ticking, that can explode in an hour or two and kill 200 or 300 civilians -- where it can be useful to have to make someone talk with the means available,” Le Pen told RMC radio and BFM Television today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/france-s-le-pen-says-torture-can-be-useful-to-fight-terrorism.html
2. Marine Le Pen: Muslims in France 'like Nazi occupation'
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-Right, drew heavy criticism after she said Muslims praying outside were like Nazi occupiers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8197895/Marine-Le-Pen-Muslims-in-France-like-Nazi-occupation.html
3. The Attack on Charlie Hebdo Plays Right Into Marine Le Pen's Hands
An additional dimension to this tragedy (attack on Charlie Hebdo) is that it plays directly into the hands of those public figures and politicians who would like to see France regress into an organic national community of blood ties, rather than of citizens. The Islamic extremists who executed the attack on Charlie Hebdo may have murdered journalists and artists, but surely their crime is also against other Muslims in France, who are now likely to be viewed as enemy aliens hostile to the essence of the Republic itself, regardless of their own beliefs. Michel Houellebecq, for instance, who often paints Muslims as a dangerous fifth column, might now perhaps be vindicated in the eyes of unreflective readers; and, in the words of one Lebanese blogger, today might very well be the day that Marine Le Pen became President of France. Le Pen, by the way, has compared the Muslim presence in France to the German occupation of the 1940s. After today, we can only hope that others will not start doing the same.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120712/charlie-hebdo-attacks-religious-violence-europe
