News Agencies – March 30, 2012
French Presidential Candidate, Marine Le Pen, leader of the nationalist Front National party, called for the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) to be banned and its congress next week to be scrapped, the FN said. “Marine Le Pen calls for a ban on the event in Le Bourget. Marine Le Pen wants the break up of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France,” Le Pen said in a statement. The congress is scheduled for April 6-9. The French government has recently banned four Islamic religious leaders heading for the UOIF congress from entering France.
The ban came after President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered a crackdown on “preachers, continually attacking French values” from entering the country. Nationalist feeling has been rising in France, with the far-right National Front performing better than expected in recent local elections. Marine Le Pen is widely expected to make the run-off in presidential polls set for April 22.
