E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Thibault Camus / AP
Young people in Paris march against same-sex marriage during a Nov. 18 protest organized by the fundamentalist Christian group Civitas Institute. French Muslims are joining the opposition.
PARIS — French Muslims have begun joining a mostly Catholic-led movement against same-sex marriage, widening opposition to the reform that the Socialist-led government is set to write into the law by June.
Fifty Muslim activists issued an open letter on Monday urging fellow Muslims to join a major Paris protest against the law on Sunday. That followed a similar appeal last Saturday by the influential Union of French Islamic Organizations, or UOIF.
Leaders of almost all main faiths in France have spoken out against the law but not called on their followers to march in Sunday's demonstration to avoid giving the opposition campaign an overly religious tone.
Gay-marriage opponents take to streets in France
President Francois Hollande and his government clashed with the Catholic Church last weekend, telling Catholic schools not to discuss the law with their pupils and urging state education officials to report anti-gay discussions at Catholic schools.
"We will protest on January 13 by joining a pluralist campaign to preserve the traditional framework of marriage," the Muslim activists' letter said. "We invite all French Muslims to turn out in large numbers."
The UOIF statement also urged Muslims to join the "March for All", the Paris protest against the reform the government has dubbed "Marriage for All".
"This bill, if it passes, will disrupt family and social structures and civil law dangerously and irreparably," it said.
The Muslim activist letter was signed by intellectuals, business leaders and leaders of several grassroots Muslim groups. It accused the government of using the marriage issue "to mask its ineffectiveness in the fight against unemployment".
France's 5-million-strong Muslim minority is Europe's biggest and Islam is the second largest faith after Catholicism.
The government has a comfortable majority in parliament to pass the bill. Opinion polls show almost 60 percent of the French support same-sex marriage but less that half want to let gay couples adopt children, which is part of the reform.
More world stories from NBC News:
- US drone strikes kill at least 18 Pakistani militants, sources tell NBC
- Assad gives defiant speech as Syrian rebels edge closer to Damascus
- Chavez ally re-elected, cementing position as possible caretaker president
- 'Nobody helped us for an hour,' Indian rape witness says
- 'Strong young woman': Taliban shooting victim Malala leaves hospital
- ANALYSIS: Is peace really in the air in Afghanistan?
- Drug-resistant malaria threatens deadly global 'nightmare'
- From alcohol to kites: An A to Z guide to the Islamic Republic of 'Banistan'
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
This is so sad. Get religion out of politics. I'm Christian and don't want it in government issues.
Gossamer, I am not a religious person, but it disturbs me that those like yourself feel politicians should be able to force their political views on religious organizations and be able to stifle them from discussing the contents of their holy books. You want government employees to monitor discussions regarding marriage so that those discussions can be shut down? You want government to dictate what part of your religion should be changed to fit government policy? I'm willing to bet that the current socialist party now ruling France will not rule for long. Unless of course, that ruling party bribes the different factions with promises of stuff for free like changes to laws favoring illegal immigrants or special interest groups, favoring one minority over the wishes of the masses by neutering the word marriage, and promises of taking money from the rich so the rest of the citizens can keep theirs in their pockets. Obama and the Democrats have not taken us there yet, but it looks like they have definitely chosen their path to future control over the masses and if you want to see where that will take us, watch France closely.
I don't care if it "disturbs" you, as I can't stand either one of you. Your tea-party, nothing more than the Klan raising its ugly little head or your Christian Taliban are all garbage. They are not forcing anything on "religious organizations" they are just not allowing the bigots that hide behind religion to make the rules for everybody. You can practice your religion, you just can't shove it down other peoples throats. Of course you then have to throw in Obama into it when it is a discussion of France, a place I am sure your ignorant a$$ has never seen. It really showed your true colors, you are just one more angry little white man who is pissed that there is a black in the WHITE House. As for gay marriage, you are in the minority now, so take your bible shove it where the sun doesn't shine, shut your trailer door and shut your mouth. Oh I am a 55 year old white man that makes 6 figures, have 11 guns and just don't like bigoted white trailer trash like you.
Dan, you seem to be having a bad day. I'm 64-years old, own and operate a general contracting company, and I don't own any guns. You are well within your rights based on our constitution to own them and I hope that never changes. For your info, I have a couple of gay relatives that I am very close to. They know how I feel, it bothers them not, and it has never affected our relationship. If having an opinion that differs from yours makes you attack somebody, you are the only guy in this conversation with a problem. I also voted for Obama in '08, and lunatics like yourself called me a racist as soon as I started to speak against the Obama policies I disagreed with. The bigot is in your mirror Dan. Give him a big gay kiss for me, will ya?
Dan seems less than tolerant.
Ron, you in Hawaii?
Regardless of your feelings on gay marriage, monitoring discussions in religious schools does step over the line. Perhaps we need a French constitutional scholar here - what are the limits of free speech in France?
Curious that you equate Islam with religion.
McGusto, Yes, I'm in Hawaii. As a matter of fact, I was caught in a traffic jamb when Obama took the family for shave ice at Island Snow last week. They shut down one of the only two roads going to Kailua Beach and Lanikai whenever Obama gets a hankering for shave ice. I do not hold that against him. They did the same for every President that has visited here. Four million dollars for his vacation though should be a concern for everybody. Especially if what I heard on the radio this morning is correct, that Obama told Boehner we do not have a spending problem. If I took a vacation that cost tax payers 4-mil, I'd be arguing we have no spending problem too.
Religion is not the excuse that for bigotry, regardless of what a holy texts says.
Simple answer to these groups is if they don't like same sex marriage don't get married to someone of the same sex.
Ron.... I'm in Nevada. Wanna trade places?
It would seem that there are commenters here that operate the same as the French government.
Did the government also ask islamic or any other schools not to discuss the law with their pupils and urge officials to report anti-gay discussions at islamic or other schools??? Either all of the facts are not being presented or the French government as well as some commenters are very one sided on this.
Acceptable for one and not the other. Laughable. Sound familiar???
"Fifty Muslim activists issued an open letter on Monday urging fellow Muslims to join a major Paris protest against the law on Sunday."
In what way, this law matter to Muslims?
All Muslims have to do is say/telephone: divorce, divorce, and divorce. Also one can have four wives at one time!
Do marriages have any meaning in Islam?
Jonathan-1982062
Obviously, marriage have more meaning to Muslims than any other group. Divorce rates are the lowest in Muslim countries. facts are facts. Hate and xenophobia aside ofcouse
No muslims on this photo and no news for this joining of muslims, do you got some pict' up ?... I wish
Gossamar........You should keep government OUT of schools!....Telling schools they should not discuss current civics and government bills........Disgusting government intrusion
Finally, Christians and Muslims have something in common. Maybe they can now come together and start to settle their differences, based on their mutual intolerance, hatred, bigotry, and fear of what they don't understand.
""This bill, if it passes, will disrupt family and social structures and civil law dangerously and irreparably," it said."
Do Muslims have family, social structure and civil law in any Muslim nation?
Take Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as examples.
Sunnis have one "laws" and rest have another set of "no laws"! Jihad against non-Sunnis are the laws!
Let Muslims first learn how to tolerate other sect/tribe Muslims.
Then they may do what followers of Islamic cult have never done: tolerate non-Muslims!
I know it as hope against hope!
i've always been amazed (and maybe a bit frightened) how SO many of these religious zealots are SO vocal about what others do... all while hiding under the banner of God. the "divine retribution" here is that as in every other segment of society, 1 in 10 of them are gay too... but i guess they'll just burn those people at the stake. after all, that's what God would want them to do, right?
regards, jo.
Is the J O for Jerk off?
But followers of Islamic cult are the worst and they are liabilities and curses on societies and nations in non-Muslim nations.
In Muslim and non-Muslim nations, their plans are only how to kill infidels (a broad term for Muslims. In Sunni majority nation, Shiites are infidels)!
"France's 5-million-strong Muslim minority is Europe's biggest and Islam is the second largest faith after Catholicism."
France's downhill started when the followers of Islamic cult started increasing in numbers!
Critics say the government is using the gay marriage issue to mask it's ineffectiveness in the fight against unemployment.
Hmmmmm.
That sounds familiar.
Libs there must be borrowing Barack's playbook.
I'll side with the gay rights on this one but still think the gov is using social issues to distract from economic and national security issues.
J O B S.
Really? Really? Oh I had a nice laugh at that, Funny how it seems to be the Republicans who make it the big issue, perhaps they using it to distract us from their main fault,
I N C O M P E T E N C Y.
War on women
gay marriage
Trayvon Martin
Mitt's taxes.
Why not run on a Budget?
Why not run on Unemployment numbers?
Why not run on ways to cut spending?
Muslims in LARGE NUMBERS!
The slogan should be "Real Jobs Not Blow Jobs"
American founders were wise in recognizing the the historical evidence of the threat to humanity derived from organized religion and the consequences of having religion dictate the laws of the land. Thus we have a phenomenon in America where Separation of Church and State exist. The powerful Roman Church caused untold harm to humanity until it was checked by the cultural revolutions of Enlightenment.
The history of the world offers so much evidence of the consequences if only people would take the time to read it before it is censored through state sanctioned control. Go to the internet and see for youself that we see in the muslim world where they are still using the Old Testament to exact sanction murder of people in the name of God.
In America The Constitution , Bill of Rights and Common Sense are all common agreements the the original colonies agreed to in order to be called states. The "civil War" was fought as a continuation of the question of State's Rights vs Government Regulation. People made many good points in that we are not called the individual states of the US, but are in fact a part of a nation where we are bound by common laws designned to protect the individual's rights under these laws. I see states like my home state of Tennessee where archaicic prejudices and religious based hatred is still rampant even though there are Gay Judges, politicians and so forth hiding under the same shield of secrecy that protects Pedophiles and sexual predators.
We need a new awakening where we objectively look at what we believe and ask if we really want to digress 3000 years where we bring stoning and public execution back as a matter of doing God's work. Anyone who can read and takes the time to do so can look at the History of the Old Testament and see that it was written purely as a tool to control the masses of people and to provide an income for the religious institutions and priest.
PS Jesus asked me to deliver a message. He said to stop using his name to inspire hate. He said his father's house has many rooms.
Love and Affection,
Lazarus
You sure seem full of yourself.
Lazarus.
So the meaning can be constued to mean they hoped for gay marriage.Can there be ANY doubt but that if they thought we'd screw this up that they would've specifically banned 'gay marriage?'
♪♫ Yeah Jesus he knows him, and He knows he's right...♫♪
It seems to be that if a gay couple want to have a civil wedding it is none of the business of the churches. If the law states that churches must marry them, then I would be against the law. I think the problem in France with Catholic schools is that the state pays for much of the costs running the schools. If the Catholic church does not want the government telling them what to teach in the schools, then refuse the money.
Laws are written by people just like religion. So why is one thing so fine and dandy and the other not?
If you do not agree with same sex marriage, then don't participate in it. If you don't like to drink alcohol, then don't. If you don't like to eat meat, then don't. If something does not fit your lifestyle or beliefs, don't try to control whether someone else cannot have it in theirs.
So if I want a gun, that is cool with you?
Or if I have a 16 year old girlfriend putting out for me is that O K ?
how about a 12 year old bride?
You cool with that?
Alcohol isn't forced on us.Gay marriage is.How gd sickening
Grow up. Explain how gay marriage specifically effects you.
It allows him to believe he's better than someone else and avoid reality.
Gay marriage and gays affect us because it is Constantly being shoved down our throats (no pun) nowadays! There isn't a movie, tv show, etc that we can turn on now that isn't about that somewhere. And it's always to tell us how to think or feel about it like some kind of brainwashing campaign. The gays are always the smart sensible ones (except Modern Family but those guys are hilarious) and anyone who is 100% on board or even understanding of them is a total baffoon. Now here the French govt. is monitoring conversations in Catholic Schools? Are they socialist or all out communist? This is totalitarianism on the flip side!
Muslims using their extreme religious views and nobodies getting killed? Bravo..
Good for them and all the others taking a stand against non-traditional marriage.
Marriage is between one Man and one Woman. Period.
If you use the conditions given to condone this atrocity - two consenting adults - then the brother & sister in Germany should be allowed to marry.
Glad you cleared that up for us, now can you address what you call someone who whines about gays and then gives their church a free pass on the ongoing coverup and protection of child raping priests?
By the way, the next time you look at a woman in lust, we get to stone you, you adulterous hypocrite.
catholics, scream about gays, birth control and abortion, allow their church to continue it's coverup and protection of child raping priests.
really that's all you need to know.
Religion in politics is a recipe for disaster and in government it becomes totalitarian structure. Just like Communism which has a brutal record of behavior toward its own citizens religion when allowed to run a government also becomes vicious.
I find it interesting that Muslims are trying to join the fight over homosexuality when the Quran has passages that sing praise for the practice of pedophilia in both boys and girls. Makes me sick.
How nice. Common ground over hate. Touching.
Thank God that America wouldn't allow this type of controversy. The French Government has the right idea to just let it happen but the Catholics, why do they feel the need to butt into someone's life?
What bothers me more are the Muslims. Honestly it seems they're in it for the attention rather than just against it.
Personally? Kill'em all, let God sort it out. Not the homosexuals just everyone in general. If we, as people, can't mind our own business then we need a good punch in the face.
Wow.
What do you call French teabaggers? Les sacs du the'?
And what do you call gay French men? Les sacs lickers?
Pathetic idea. You can get married, but cannot have a real family, according to many French. wtf is wrong with you?
Muslims have no right really being in France to begin with so why are they even important in this? I mean, we all know religion has no say in politics why does any of this matter?
60% support gay marriage. What more is needed? Include adoption. They are humans who wants families and love in their lives as well. A gay couple will have less of an impact on the kids than two straight couples getting a divorce. Do it, France. It'll be better for you in the end. Change is inevitable. Be on the right side of history.
Anything that involves Muslims seems to be considered news worthy.
So you're assuming straight couples will get divorced but gay ones won't? And what about gay men adopting boys? No recipe for disaster? People think just the catholic church has a corner market on that kind of thing? How convenient. Maybe many people just don't like it and feel it's not natural, but march with the religious for strength, and also so they don't have to deal with people trying to use a psychological argument on them ("so what's wrong with it, blah, blah, blah"). And while the numbers of Muslims and the way they are flexing their muscle is a little disturbing, I'm glad for them here. Note to the liberals who are saying what's wrong with gay marriage at the same time as trying to strip away Catholicism, the Muslim numbers will increase as this happens and they'll take you and your ideals on a lot harder. For that tho, I am relieved.
Hilarious, some of the kids on the picture are probably too young to have figured out they might be gay. The power of religious brainwashing.....
And the Muslims and their extreme views in not-their-original land. Gotta love it. They should try to soften their compadres' views in the Middle East, as obviously we are failing.
I mean, Muslims complaining about Liberalism. The same Liberalism that allows and helps them to be in France and have equal or more equal rights, less discrimination, less racism. I haven't seen it all yet.
Exactly. I had the same impression. The caption under the photo should read: "Young people in Paris resemble rabbit fetuses."
Rabbit fetuses, really? And I agree about that irony but only in reverse. Muslims never pretended to be liberal, and would and do put an end to even small amounts of it where in power, but yet the liberal are always fighting causes like theirs. The liberals can't see the forest for the trees.
I was commenting on the first sentence of Post #18,nothing more unbelievable. I do not have an opinion on Muslims and Liberalism, and yes...rabbit fetuses. :P
Got nothing against gay men and women they are just people. So good luck to them. But I can't stand gay men and women who dress and try to act like the opposite sex when not even the opposite sex acts like that. It's not that I hate them they are just really annoying to listen to. But then again they may think that about me.
To the Muslim population. We tolerate you even though you have a very high propensity of strapping BOMBS to yourselves and blowing up innocent bystanders while screaming I love Alah. Gay folks are just trying to get through life like everyone else, leave em be.
Hatred - bringing religions together...isn't that nice? It's awesome that is where they find their common ground - not in acceptance, love, etc, but in hate. It would be comical if it weren't true...and sad.
Hey, all of you FRENCH MUSLIMS--I have a couple of words for you and your murdering, woman and baby killing muslim brothers and sisters,
Go PHUCK yourselves.
You and your ilk are the worst thing happening on this earth these days.
The world would be better off if all of you terrorist murderers were to be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Gay marriage is against humanity and nature.
Ban gay activities and marriage.
How's that Henrich? Can you elaborate?
I think gays have been part of humanity for a long time, actually for as long as human nature has been around. That's just my take on it.
A brief history of Religion as we know it:
When people quote from the old testament, they either are unaware of or want to
ignore the source of the writings.
The Jews were slaves of the Egyptians who used them as well as other slave nations
to build the great empire and its lasting architecture. Four thousand years
went by, and by the account of the life of Moses around 2500BC, he grew up in
Pharaoh's household as a prince. A Jewish prince in the house of Pharaoh.
He led the tribes out of Egypt in search of the promised land. He
eventually settled in the land of Canaan, but look at the history of that
region. It was continually contested by wars for time on end.
The ancient writings of the Hebrews were a culmination of tales of creation and of
the great genetic line of Abraham. As Moses led his people around looking for the "Promised" lands, he led the tribes near other civilizations and city states like ancient Babylon. That was too bad for the places he visited.
His tribes were tired of wandering on the way to Canaan, and many wanted to stop
and assimilate into local societies. Moses wrote his five books of law to stop
this from happening. How did the laws do this? The answer is by pain of death.
Moses laws were ordained as Divine Inspiration and as such were the direct
communication from God to Moses.
He wrote the laws, and to break a law was a sin. The wages of sin is death, and to
break a law was to die as ordained by Moses and god. He enforced the laws by
giving permission for the True Believers to enforce the laws as Gang or Mob
rule. The fact that a violent mob can take it upon themselves to murder people
in God's name gives the laws validity as a sort of unity. It also served to
send a message to any who might oppose the persons behind the power, "Defy
me and you will die".
Muhammad stole the Hebrew writings and added some of his own justice to it in the 7th Century AD.
These people we see in the news today shouting and killing people are acting exactly as
we would have seen in Jesus' time and before/during Moses a thousand years earlier.
What is relevant about this is that we are seeing a reenactment of the religious
persecution of over four thousand years ago acted out today. This type of
fanaticism does not go away by itself, it, by its own nature must die a violent
death since Violence is the fuel that drives the engine.
When Jesus opposed the Police State of the Hebrews and died for his efforts, the Hebrew state kept gaining in military power to a point where they made the mistake of challenging their Masters, the Romans some 45 years later.
They lost and became reduced to the status of slaves to be tortured and murdered alongside of the Christians in the coliseums for the entertainment of the loyal subjects of Rome. Because they murdered Christ, they have suffered since they lost the friendship of their protectors, the Romans. The Romans later became Catholics (400ad-1000ad), go figure.
Before I am criticized for not providing exact date, I am writhing from memory and not
teaching a class. I am trying to demonstrate the origin of so much of the hatred we have seen derived from this religious foundation.
So many people today want to hate for a variety of reasons including homosexuality. Read history, and determine for yourself what is true.
Hatred or Homosexuality come from Moses laws since he had to condemn the
city states he and his tribe were near. The Homosexual human emotion is natural
as we see in history and was a socially accepted normal human response until
Moses need some sort of hatred to unify his tribes and to threaten his own
people with Death as a consequence.
Personally,
I do not believe Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God at all. I believe his
people wanted to stay there and he ordered the place destroyed. He is the author,
and controlled what history recorded, so he had the power to write whatever he
wanted history to read. That is just deductive reasoning from an educated
standpoint.
Since the Ancient writings were edited and rewritten over a period of a thousand
years after the death of Christ, who living can say what the ancient scrolls truly say. Before the Christian laws were made into law, the Romans literally hired hundreds of Scholars to
put the writings into a usable form that we see today. The purpose for the Roman
Catholic writings is the same today as it was during the time of Moses when it
was originally written, to control large masses of people. FEAR GOD, LOVE JESUS
is the massage. Jesus had no part in that message, as he had been dead and gone
from Earth for a thousand years.
Lazarus
The religion of peace: Qu'ran- Sura's
9:5. Then when the Sacred Months (the 1st, 7th, 11th, and 12th months of the Islamic calendar) have passed, then kill the Mushrikun {unbelievers} wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for them each and every ambush. But if they repent and perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat {the Islamic ritual prayers}), and give Zakat {alms}, then leave their way free. Verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful.
8:39. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone [in the whole of the world]. But if they cease (worshipping others besides Allah), then certainly, Allah is All-Seer of what they do.
8:67. It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war (and free them with ransom) until he had made a great slaughter (among his enemies) in the land. You desire the good of this world (i.e. the money of ransom for freeing the captives), but Allah desires (for you) the Hereafter. And Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.
9:29. Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
9:33. It is He {Allah} Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it superior over all religions even though the Mushrikun (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) hate (it).
Quran
(3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the
Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".
Quran
(4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn
renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."
Quran
(5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
Quran
(9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"
Quran
(47:35) - "Be not weary and faint-hearted, crying for peace, when ye should be uppermost (Shakir: "have the upper hand") for Allah is with you,"
Do you believe that this religious brutality is relagated to the past? Look at news web sites from around the world and see how people are stoned to death or have their hands cut off in a public square as the justice in the laws od the koran. People live in this horror every day and just because you do not see it does not make it less true.
The threat is real and growing like a cancer, incideous to the host nations where it gains a plce to reside. The Hebrews wrote the foundation for Islam and was the foundation for Roman Christian religion and that is where religious hatred of "Non-Believers" come from. Civilization waged wars to put down the religious empires of Rome and Hebrews, but Islam's war is yet to come, or so it seems.
The institution of heterosexual marrage is a joke on so many levels that I can not see why the ignorant prejudice against same sex marriage exist.
Lazarus