Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Friday lashed out at Qatar for investing in "Muslim" areas of French cities and for taking over Paris Saint-Germain football club.
"The massive investments which it has made in suburbs are made because of the very high proportion of Muslims who are in the French suburbs," she told reporters.
"I think this situation could be very dangerous," she said. "We are letting a foreign country choose its investments with regard to the religion of this or that part of the French population or of French territory."
The tiny but very wealthy Gulf state of Qatar late last year set up a 50-million-euro ($67-million) fund for entrepreneurs from France's often-deprived suburbs to set up businesses.
Le Pen, who is just two percentage points behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy less than four months before the election here, also said that she was not happy with Qatar's takeover of Paris Saint-Germain last year.
"It does actually bother me that Qatar bought Paris Saint-Germain," she said.
Qatar's Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is owner of the club through Qatar Sports Investments.
Le Pen said that in general Qatar was "playing a double game" by presenting itself as an "enlightened" country while at the same time supporting Islamist groups in the Middle East and North Africa.
Gas-rich Qatar is a traditional French ally and provided vital Arab support to French and British-led efforts to get a UN mandate for military action to protect civilians during the eight-month uprising in Libya.
Qatar provided military support to NATO-led operations in Libya, including deploying troops on the ground.More here.
3 comments:
le pen is great on ww4, but a socialist on economic issues. siggh.
"fund for entrepreneurs from France's often-deprived suburbs to set up businesses."
I believe this is a euphemism for funding muslim extremism, muslim "charities" and groups spreading sharia law. I do not imagine for a moment that the deprived muslims in the 'banlieues' of Paris and Marseilles, intend to start-up some internet companies or anything that would assist any but moslems, in their determination for hegemony over the West.
Quatar is also the base of Shaikh Yousef al-Qaradawi.
Qatar openly tolerates his extremist views and Hamas fundraising, as al-Qaradawi noted at last week’s event: “I have been living in Qatar for many years and the Qatari government has never interfered in my activities.”
It is interesting to note that the headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), completed in 1983, was funded by $21 million raised from Brotherhood figures Youssef Qaradawi and Youssef Nada as well as the emir of Qatar.
Post a Comment