France: Police ban Pork and Alcohol Party
Police ban pork-sausage and alcohol street party planned in Muslim area of Paris
French police have banned as a provocation a “pork sausage and booze” street party planned for Friday in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of Paris.
The party was scheduled for the Goutte-d’Or neighborhood of northern Paris where Muslims pray on the streets on Fridays because there are not enough mosques, the Associated Press reports. Alcohol and pork are banned in Islam.
Organizers, who used a Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120706347964200&v=wall&ref=search#!/group.php?gid=120706347964200 to build support, say the event was aimed at protesting Islam’s encroachment on traditional French values in the neighborhood.
Muslim groups, in turn, announced a counterparty serving halal food.
The main organizer, who uses the pseudonym Sylvia François on the event’s “Saucisson et Pinard” Facebook page, tells the left-wing daily newspaper Libération that she no longer feels at home in her neighborhood, France24 TV reports.
“Ethnic French people can no longer take a drink in peace around here,” Francoise says. “You get odd looks for being a woman who is not wearing a veil, dressed with a little bit of elegance.”
The party drew the support of several right-wing groups, including Secular Counterattack, Identity Bloc and Solidarité avec les Français, says France24 TV, which carries a report in English here.
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