Today's Date:

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R - Naturally, because we have to avoid any kind of confusion. We must be extremely firm against individuals who do not respect the laws of our Republic or actually jeopardize the security of our territory--there, firmness is required, and that explains a number of difficult decisions I’ve taken, specifically regarding evictions--but at the same time, we must keep in mind that a very large majority of France’s Moslems want to live in peace in our country and respect our Republic. So I believe it is necessary to avoid conflating things. That is the reason why organizing a “French” Islam is one of our main endeavors. We want to assist the efforts of the French Council of the Moslem Faith, and its regional councils. You see, there is a vast amount of work to be done. Time moves forward. I often said it as foreign minister, and I say it again as interior ministry. We cannot separate foreign and domestic policies. Everything is changing with great speed. It is the responsibility of leaders to move even faster than events in order to prevent our having to pay a price in terms of security and stability. It is our duty to adapt our country to these new times.

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R – First I believe it is the movie industry professionals' choice. To my thinking, culture is entitled to look at politics, especially today where one can see fear setting in too often, fear which is of bad advice. So the glance of culture, the glance of art on politics, is stimulating for democracy. I believe it is a privilege of democracies to be capable of becoming better thanks to these various visions. (…) So on a subject as grave as that of war and peace, as that of the situation in Iraq and the Middle East, the responsibility of all our fellow countrymen is now involved. So it’s certainly a stimulating exercise to face the vision of an important film-maker.

R – It’s hard to know how to separate the cultural message from the political one when the stakes are vital for a nation or for a world. At climatic moments of our history, politics and culture are bound in the fate of peoples. It is a principle of responsibility. (…) We can see quite well, today, that the world is transforming through what takes place in the Middle East, and the game is not played yet. We still can act to make sure that this game is not another real disaster for the world. In particular let us prevent what happens in Iraq from being linked with what happens in the Middle East. If these two crises, by the ineptness, or mistakes of some important world leaders, were to be linked, then, yes, I believe that something irreparable, irreversible would be created. So it’s essential to mobilize; that is the direction taken by French diplomacy, it is what Mr. Barnier is doing, what the president is doing. We have a duty to act, we have a duty to present proposals. We’ve done so by proposing a national and international conference on Iraq, by saying that the first duty of world diplomacy is tackling the question of the Middle East if we really want to reduce the risk. In the Middle East, including Iraq, let us address the question of the Middle East, let us show that Western countries are not only capable of making war but also of inventing peace. This message, I believe, is political but it is also human and humanist. It is the paramount duty of our countries to show that we are capable of breaking down resistance, changing polities and changing our habits./.