PARIS,
December 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Le Secours Islamique
(Islamic Relief) group in France is planning to distribute plates of
delicious Moroccan couscous (hard-wheat semolina) as Christmas cheer
among the poor and displaced in France irrespective of their religion
or ethnicity in response to what is known as "racist soup"
served by an extreme-right group for Christians only.
“The
‘couscous of friendship’ campaign will reach out to all French,
Muslims or non-Muslims, nationwide,” Wahid Abbasi, media officer of
the Islamic Relief in France, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, December
27.
He
added French Muslims have volunteered to serve couscous at underground
metro stations, parks, in front of mosques and churches.
“There
is no room for religious backgrounds in our campaign,” Abbasi
stressed.
Dominique
Lescure, head of the small ultra-nationalist Soulidarieta (solidarity)
group, distributes every Wednesday free hot soup containing pork –
which Muslims and Jews do not eat -- for the poor in front of the main
church in Nice, southeastern France.
When
he launched his soup kitchen in early December under the motto “Ours
before the Others,” Lescure said in a statement he wanted to help
“our least fortunate blood brothers ... in this hour when the black
tide of demographic submersion and free-market impoverisation is
rising.”
“I
don't see why I should not be able to put pork, which has always
played a major role in my country's cuisine, into a traditional soup
that I want to distribute, admittedly, to my compatriots and European
homeless people,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
An
official with the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM) charged in
statements to IOL that Lescure’s campaign was targeting Muslims as
he knew that Muslims do not eat pork.
“He
wants to force poor Muslims to drink his soup,” he said.
A
Nice official said he could do nothing about the controversial soup
kitchen.
“Serving
soup with pork is not a crime,” said deputy mayor Noel Ayraud.
Lescure’s
“charity” was banned last year in Paris on the grounds that it was
racist and selective.
Protests
 |
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A poor man drinks Lescure’s soup in Nice.
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The
soup kitchen, set up at the harbor of this Riviera town, draws about
as many protesters as poor people, according to Reuters.
Protesters
at the soup kitchen denounced the group as a bunch of racists.
“Our
fathers are Muslims and they fought for France with honor and
loyalty,” one Muslim woman shouted at Lescure while serving his
controversial soup.
“This
pork-based soup kitchen is pure discrimination, it's an in-your-face
way of telling people who don't eat pork – you can stay in your
cardboard boxes and starve,” said Teresa Mafeis, holding back tears
of anger.
“After
the holidays, we're going to set up our own soup kitchen and there
will be shorba for everyone,” she said, using the Arabic word for
soup.
The
Muslim Soup for All organization embarked on its annual campaign for
the 13th straight year in Ramadan this year.
The
organization provides hot soup for poor Muslims and non-Muslims alike
across France.
In
2003, Le Secours Islamique placed money boxes in shops and
supermarkets to raise
funds for the poor, drawing unprecedented Muslim and
non-Muslim contributions.
The
electrocution deaths of two teenagers of west and North African
background hiding from police in an electrical sub-station in a poor
neighborhood northeast of Paris in October cast a harsh light on
racism in France.
The
incident was taken as an excuse by hundreds of immigrants to vent
their pent-up frustration at racial discrimination despite being born
in France, a lack of educational and employment prospects and police
harassment.
