Riposte Laïque and Résistance Républicaine are two of the most prominent grassroots organizations that resist the Islamization of France. Last Sunday (January 18) they had scheduled a rally in Paris in support of PEGIDA, and using the PEGIDA model. A few days before the event (that is, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre) the authorities ordered that the demo be cancelled.

Below is a portion of a news conference that was held in place of the rally. The speaker is Christine Tasin, the leader of Résistance Républicaine.

Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript (times are from the original, longer video of the press conference):

00:00 Parts of a European Press Conference

00:04 18 January 2015 Paris

02:25 Christine Tasin, Director of Resistance Republicaine

03:41 How can we be accused of inciting

03:45 hatred when we simply ask that the terrorists/jihadists

03:49 not be our neighbours, or child-care workers

03:54 in the social services etc.?

03:58 We don’t get it. The judges (last week) agreed with us,

04:02 but, apparently, the Chief of Police [Bernard] Boucault,

04:06 under a direct order from and intervention by the Interior Minister Casseneuve,

04:10 has decided to issue a new ban

04:14 on our demonstration, by finally accusing us of

04:18 being Islamophobes. So it is clear

04:22 that the ban imposed on us this time

04:26 is nothing less than

04:30 an prohibition on criticism of Islam.

04:34 This is very serious. I believe we are at a historic turning point.

04:38 Here you have a Minister of the Republique

04:42 who via his Chief of Police does the same thing

04:46 as the terrorists who killed at Charlie Hebdo,

04:50 and who killed at the Kosher grocery store the next day, namely

04:54 impose by fear, by terror in one case,

04:58 by fear and censure in the other,

05:02 the prohibition on criticism of Islam.

05:06 What is happening, with the active complicity of

05:10 the Government, is the imposition of Sharia.

05:14 That is, the prohibition on criticism of Islam

05:18 in non-Islamic countries. I remind you that

05:22 there are 57 Muslim countries,

05:26 and none of these 57 countries allows the freedom of speech,

05:30 nor are dogmas allowed to be criticised.

05:34 We are not YET a Muslim country,

05:38 yet our governments do everything so that we might become one,

05:42 and that Islam is forced on us. Today something

05:46 very grave happened in Dresden,

05:51 because PEGIDA Dresden has given up on

05:55 the march which was to be held tomorrow evening,

05:59 under the pretext that a terrorist organisation,

06:03 the “Islamic State”, had issued threats against one of the organisers.

06:07 This sounds very bizarre to us,

06:11 and we say clearly we see in this a political manoeuvre.

06:15 We do not know what means of pressure were applied

06:19 to PEGIDA Dresden,

06:23 how they were forced to renounce their march in the streets,

06:27 but it is very clear to us that what we have here has to do with

06:31 the will of the powers in Germany, in Europe among all

06:35 present European elites to let Islam

06:39 take hold in Europe, Germany,

06:43 and to reduce to silence the people who do not want this.

06:47 Once more: by terror, by menace.

06:51 What is happening is absolutely the contrary of what should be

06:55 If this organiser of PEGIDA really has received

06:59 threats, then the German government would be obliged

07:03 to assure his protection. They had to respond

07:07 by assuring, as is the case with Geert Wilders and for [Robert] Redeker,

07:11 the protection of this person. To kneel down and to ban

07:15 is really saying that freedom of thought and criticism of

07:19 Islam is officially forbidden. PEGIDA goes further,

07:23 and we ask ourselves if the powers in Germany

07:27 are not behind this: they invite tomorrow at 6.30 pm

07:31 all Europeans who say “No to Islam” to light a candle

07:35 in their windows. I translate this as follows:

07:39 ”We will be able to identify all who are anti-Islam and we can

07:43 point out living targets.”

07:47 When you are in a protest march, you have a certain anonymity.

07:52 When you light a candle in response to such an appeal, your neighbour,

07:56 perhaps a Jihadist, can locate you.

08:00 Your boss, who might not be happy that you have different ideas

08:04 on Islam, has discovered you and your risk is great.

08:08 So, in our opinion this is a grave manoeuvre

08:12 undertaken with the complicity of the German powers, which does not surprise us,

08:16 in view of the position taken by Merkel where she joins with Hollande,

08:20 who for the last ten days has multiplied the interventions against

08:24 ”Islamophobia”. I end by telling you

08:28 something important: Islamophobia

08:32 means “being frightened of Islam”. Islam is not a race;

08:36 it’s not a man; it’s a dogma.

08:40 One can be frightened of Christianity, of Communism,

08:44 of Fascism, of Islam. In France, a democratic country,

08:48 we have the right to criticise dogmas.

08:52 And to forbid “Islamophobia” as do Ministers

08:56 Casseneufe, Taubira and as does Hollande,

09:00 is saying that they change the law.

09:04 French law does not forbid the criticism of Islam, does not forbid

09:08 the criticism of dogmas, so I assume that we are in

09:12 a totalitarian system which is taking root in a dictatorship