Dominique Baudis:
Eurabia and IMA’s goals are one and the same
“Paris has succeeded in its mission: introducing the culture and civilization of the Arab countries to the French and to the many foreign tourists who visit the building. The institute’s president, Dominique Baudis, spoke of an ”excellent” result.”
Those who point to Bat Ye’or’s excellent exposé of the Eurabian project, and dismiss it as a conspiracy theory, either have never read the book, or have their own self interests at heart, and need to descredit her research. One of the biggest criticisms of the Eurabia theory fact, is that Europe, embodied in the political entity of the European Union, is highly fracticious, and with a myriad of competing voices and self interests, no single minded policy like the Eurabian project could ever be embarked upon, let alone allowed to proceed over the last three decades or so.
But Eurabists have managed to overcome that problem by inculcating the very structure and environment of the European Union with an Eurabianist sub-culture. The moment one enters the political culture of the EU, as either a politician or as a bureaucrat, one is immediately emmersed in the existing language and thinking of that sub-culture. So here we have the president of France’s Arab World Institute insisting that his organization has been immensely successful in its mission.
The Tundra Tabloids would wager that EU funding has been quite extensive in covering the IMA’s operating costs, and that the institution has influenced other Eurabist projects throughout Europe as well. Dominique Baudis is very open about the IMA’s mission, especially after 9/11, that “to make people understand that the combination of terrorism and Islam is an aberration.” This all fits nicely with the Eurabist point of view about Islam. KGS
NOTE: Baudis’ views also dovetails with that of the current US administration’s, which can be seen in Obama’s refusal to state the obvious about Major Jihad, Nidal Hasan’s actions, that they were in fact an act of Islamic terrorism/jihad.
CULTURE: IMA IN PARIS,SHOWCASE OF ARAB WORLD FOR 22 YEARS
ROME – In its 22 years of existence, ‘l’Institut du Monde Arabe (Ima)’ in Paris has succeeded in its mission: introducing the culture and civilization of the Arab countries to the French and to the many foreign tourists who visit the building. The institute’s president, Dominique Baudis, spoke of an ”excellent” result.
Baudis visited Rome in the past days to chair the jury of the Medfilm Festival. ”If the idea was to make the Institute a showcase, a cultural centre to show the Arab culture and civilization to France and Europe, the mission has been completed” Baudis told ANSAmed from the closing ceremony of the Mediterranean Film Festival. Despite twenty years of financial difficulties, ”the numbers speak for themselves” he said: ”around one million visitors per year”.
L’Institut du Monde Arabe was created in 1987. Valery Giscard d’Estaing expressed his will to see such institute created already in the first years of his seven-year period, and it actually came from the ground under Francois Mitterrand. Today 22 Arab countries are member of the Institute. The initiative shows a certain political-diplomatic far-sightedness from the side of the French. ”At the time” said Baudis, former Lebanon and Near East reporter for radio and TF1 television, and later mayor of Toulouse and Euro-MP for the UMP, ”no other European country was able to understand what was going to happen in the relations between the West and Islam”.
”In the ’80s” he continued, ”there was a wide gap between culture on one side, and international relations on the other”. After September 11, the role of the Ima became increasingly important: ”There were more tasks for us, we organised debates and meetings. Our mission was also to make people understand that the combination of terrorism and Islam is an aberration”.
Baudis, talking about the dialogue between the West and Islam, remarked that ”there are as many reasons for hope as there are for despair. What is certain is, that we can’t just sit on our hands. We must try and avoid the worst. A festival like the Mediterranean film festival is ”a good example. ”Thirty years ago such a festival would have been unthinkable”.
NOTE: Yes indeed, over thirty years ago, the very idea of substituting European culture with a Muslim one, would have been unthinkable.
