- French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday that Paris is set to deport a string of radical religious imams as part of a fight against "global jihadism".
Just as some context, France is fairly vulnerable right now to extremism as they are fighting the rebels in Mali, who are about as extreme a group as you can find. You also have the shootings by Mohamed Merah last year, and two accomplices to those shootings were recently arrested. France has also never supported it's Islamic population, not economically, and certainly not socially. This isn't anything new either, France is [deporting] people they regard as radical on a pretty regular basis.
So the question arises, is what they are doing right? Do you agree with deporting radical members of your country who may not be directly responsible for violence, but preach it nonetheless? Or people who don't assimilate to your culture but live in it anyway?
While it's definitely not a peacy opinion, I think deporting people who preach violence and absolutely refuse to assimilate is fine. The problems created by that sort of toxic behavior far outweigh any of the the moral issue of deportation. The problem is where the line gets drawn between extreme and acceptable, but in France's case it's fairly clear. Whether or not this will be implemented correctly is anyone's guess, though.
May not be a PC opinion, but I'm all for it. I don't even care if people want to bring their religious values to my country, the US, but if they are being violent, or trying to change my country into one that they come from, then they need to leave or be deported. Period. You come to France and want it to be like a Muslim run nation, then sorry, you should go back to an existing Muslim nation. I have a problem with people who move to another country, and that bitch that it isn't run how they want it. They made the choice to move there, and they should deal with it, or perhaps never have moved there in the first place. Look at it this way, I can't go to a sharia law country and start threatening them because I can't drink in public, or let my wife walk around without covering herself properly, or have investments that earn me interest on my money. No, none of us would do that, because I would educate myself on these things before moving there and make the educated decision that our lifestyles are too polar for me to live how I want there. Why can't others do the same? It's just plain rude and ignorant to move to a country and try to change it to your ways, especially when they are considered radical or archaic by the country you are moving to. Tolerance is something all governments should show, but at the same time they need top protect their values, safety, and way of life for all... not just a vocal and select few. Deporting those vocal, violent, and select few, is by all means okay in my book.
The problem with these types of policies always has less to do with the intent, and more to do with the implementation. That said, one can always look at the countries that these clerics have emmigrated from and ask whether or not 'French values' would be tolerated there. Personally, I think that some religious laws/practices run counter to a liberal society with secular governance. Here in the US we prohibit certain religious practices; the first that comes to mind is polygamy. If a group of immigrants decided to practice or encourage the practice of polygamy, I can see the US being in the right to deny them residency. However, as the implementation of these policies can be wrought with racism, xenophobia, and abuse, I think it best that each case goes through a proper judicial process.