Maybe they should fly in Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" to serve the stuff.

Well folks, it is going to be pretty interesting what happens here in Europe in the next years, especially on issues such as the African and North African inmigration and Muslim integration. Meanwhile, it strikes me to hear in Spain, a country that had no discernible foreign community until the mid-1990's and now hosts 4 million, the expression: "Too many inmigrants" in so many mouths, even though most of them come from Latin America and are easily integrated due to sharing the same language and religion.

Maybe we are getting closer to the European way of thinking.

I don't really see what they will accomplish with this, but hey it's a free country too.

Hi all:
For more info check out Occidentalis which has covered the event from on the ground
It,s also a useful tonic to the usual nonsense about French appeasment. Not all Frenchmen are spineless appeasers.

#4---I'm mixed on all of this. I am happy to see indigenous French people assert their Frenchness. which is not politically correct. I think the Identity Soupers cut to the core by acting out on feelings shared by the majority, though long repressed.

Nationalism also has its dangers, as Europe so amply demonstrates in its history. Are these people nationalists? Is nationalism's reemergence throughout Europe the cure to the continent's ebbing cultural influence? In some ways, it might be. In others, not really.

Note that pork soup excludes Jews as much as it excludes Muslims. The tacit message: all foreigners are to be excluded from French culture.

For all their talk of nuance and inclusion, Europeans can be surprisingly black-and-white about things.

Anyway, this is all interesting to watch.

It will be interesting to see what comes next. I wonder when (not if) someone will come out for making the public consumption of pork a hate crime.

#4 from xavier: "Hi all:
For more info check out Occidentalis which has covered the event from on the ground"

Since there's no working link did a search for Occidentalis and I went here (link).

That doesn't seem to be it. Where is the coverage of the event from on the ground?

Not real sure about this one.

Say that the govt passed a law banning pork because of muslim sensitivities. Say some food chain or grocery declared that they would no longer serve pork. The proper response might be eating pork soup in public. A few lefties protesting and some lack luster enforcement by police hardly constitutes some ban on French culture.

This one just doesnt feel right. I agree with anyone who noted that these demonstrations seem to exclude Jews from French-ness as well. The protestors seem to lump anyone who doesnt eat pork as un-French. Recall the truism, that anti-semitism is a symptom that many many of the worlds worst people all seem to share. I heard nothing in the whole article that would ease my worries about this.

Besides, I think these events have all the appearance of something that is going a little overboard. There is something ridiculous about it. Ridiculous public stunts are tell-tell signs of extremism.

Having said that, if someone came along and tried to pry a loaded brat from my greasy little hands out of some misguided deference to muslims, I would be the first to change my tune and join these people. There would be a FIGHT! just dont think we are there...yet. Therefore protesting against pork averse religious people seems not just a little silly.

PS

By coincidence, I had the delightful pleasure of tasting some genuine fresh made boudain this morning. Someone at my place of work brought it from LA.

As my tastebuds danced with unspeakable joy, I thought to myself, 'Those poor muslim suckers...They aren't Jewish but they dont eat pork, poor bastards!' Well, something like that anyway. I tried to imagine beef sausage tasting as good. I've had beef sausage. Its not quite the same. With the lone exception of the superior kosher hotdog, I would say that beef is just not sausage material and with the exception of the Jews, anyone who cant eat it is sadly missing out.

The jews more than make up for their lack of great pork sausage with kosher pastrami sandwiches.

Hmmmmmmm. ok I got to stop. I'm like nowhere near a proper New York kosher delicatessen! Arghhhh!

J Aguilar -- Spain hosts mostly unassimilated North Africans who speak Arabic or more likely Berber, are illiterate or functionally so in their native tongue, and do not share base cultural values of Spaniards.

This has profound implications for a nation that by force of arms recovered itself from relatively recent Islamic occupation, most of which was brutal and oppressive. The Inquisition naturally followed a harsh and repressive Islamic regime.

It is only a matter of time before various North African states start making territorial claims against Spain to ease internal conflict. Weakness invites attack which in turn invite nationalism which is certainly not dead.

As far as the pork soup? Identity politics spawn ... Identity Politics. It's the inevitable wave of multi-culturalism and so on. This does not surprise me.

#5-I'm mixed on all of this. I am happy to see indigenous French people assert their Frenchness...

When have the french ever not assert their Frenchiness...

"I mean, I'm big on the French, my family is french from way back, but sometimes they're just F$#&in' French" - Eddie Izzard

Are you kidding? all they have to do is put won tons in it and have some plum sauce to go with the slices, and they'd be jam-packed with Jews every Sunday!

Ah yes, the well-known Chinese food exception to the dietary rules.

David Blue;

Here,s one participant's response to the pig soup supper. basically he told Chirac to inform some Eurodeputy to buzz off as to what the Alacians would eat for supper
xavier

IIRC, the pork soup movement is a reaction to the behavior of Muslims who bully their way to the front of soup lines and other charity giveaways.  Making the soup haram isn't a provocation, it's payback.

Cicero,

Nationalism also has its dangers, as Europe so amply demonstrates in its history. Are these people nationalists? Is nationalism's reemergence throughout Europe the cure to the continent's ebbing cultural influence?

I don't think it is really Nationalism. It has some of their characteristics, that's true.

In my opinion, one of the problems of Europe, is simply the contrary: lack of ideals, lack of common goals. European countries are no longer world superpowers, they have had to leave some important issues to the European Union government, such as Economics, or to the NATO (defense). Their populations are mixing, especially in big cities and border and touristical areas. Old cultural values are no longer a guide to confront today's world.

Moreover, the Left has actively pushed towards erasing common values for all Europeans such as Christianity (in a wide sense) or classic Liberalism. Please note that this suicidal ideology is constantly pumped by almost all the mass media into European societies.

Europeans are lacking a common goal, common ideals, and the worst of all is that all those ideas have always existed and are ready to be spread and to show a path out of this mess but some powerful people have interest in keeping them far from the public.

In my opinion, the Soup issue is just an act of reasserting some kind of identity, some kind of solid ground in all this mess.

Note that pork soup excludes Jews as much as it excludes Muslims. The tacit message: all foreigners are to be excluded from French culture.

I don't think so. There are many European foreigners in any big size European city. Companies work with and export to other European partners. You know, the Economy is getting pretty integrated. I don't think they are directly tackling any foreigner, but that they are reassuring their identity against Muslims, which has been a pretty beligerant group during the last months in France.

Am I missing something here? It sounds like a right-wing group taking an opportunity to appear to be doing charitable work whilst at the same same making a anti-muslim statement.

How exactly are you dressing this up as something laudable?

You can eat Pork and still be a Jew. Maybe not a 'practicing' or religious Jew, but certainly still ethnically Jewish. However, if you eat pork you are not acting in an Islamic manner.

I would hesitate to claim that pork soup is anti-Jewish.

Mr. Baker, this movement is a response to the abuses of Muslim bullies.  The news has carried several items about French charitable efforts which have been mobbed by Muslims who shove their way to the front of lines, demand things even though they are not eligible (e.g. young people demanding food designated for the elderly) and other things.

Pork soup is laudable because it puts the bullies in their place.

(Dammit, if the #$*&!! filter is going to deny whole blog domains, TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DELETE!)