ThE MESSENGER - Franco-American School of New York

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10CommunityNovember 2012L´innocence des musulmanset ses conséquencesPar Iona SobralL’innocence des musulmans, de son titre original, Innocence of Muslims, estun film crée en 2012 par Nakoula Basseley sous le pseudonyme de « Sam Bacile ». Ilaurait été produit, selon le réalisateur, dans le but de dénoncer les «hypocrisies» del’islam.Basseley est un Égyptien islamophobe résidant aux Etats-Unis. C’est un petitréalisateur de film. Il n’a pas été retrouvé pour le moment.La réalisation du film est obscure; les acteurs semblaient ignorer que le filmprévu avait un rapport direct avec l’islam, la première version du film ne serait pas islamophobeselon eux. Leur paroles auraient étés remplacés par d’autres. L’actrice CindyLee Garcia a déclaré que le tournage a eu lieu durant l’été 2011 et que la bande sonorede la vidéo avait été « doublée pour faire dire aux membres de la distribution des chosesqu’ils n’ont pas dites ». Elle a précisé « qu’il n’était d’ailleurs aucunement question duprophète Mahomet dans le scénario original, intitulé Desert Warriors ». L’acteur TimDax estime également avoir été piégé : « J’ai été auditionné pour un film intitulé DesertStorm censé parler des guerriers antiques. Je ne suis pas du tout islamophobe. »La bande annonce traduite en arabe a été diffusée sur internet et sur les chainesd’information égyptiennes, invitant des personnalités musulmanes à la regarder. Cesderniers, choqués, l’ont dénoncé.Pourquoi tant de bruit ? Une raison toute simple : L’innocence des musulmansmet en scène de manière satyrique des passages de la vie du prophète Mahomet, lefaisant passer pour un homosexuel, et un pédophile, entres autres.Les conséquences ? Les bandes-annonces du film en version arabe, dénoncéespour blasphème envers Mahomet, ont été invoquées comme raison principale desmanifestations et attentats anti-américains de septembre 2012, notamment les attaquesdu 11 septembre 2012 contre les missions diplomatiques américaines. L’uned’elles fut l’assaut contre l’ambassade des États-Unis en Égypte. D’autres, en Libye,ont eu pour cible principale le consulat des États-Unis à Benghazi et ont fait quatremorts—tout en notant que la CIA et le White House annoncent maintenant quel’attaque à Benghazi origine d’un complot terroriste et non pas des protestes contreL’innocence des musulmans. Des attaques contre les ambassades d’Allemagne et duRoyaume-Uni ont également eu lieu au Soudan. D’après les medias, la bande annoncene serait qu’un prétexte des organisations terroristes responsables pour les attentats.Une réponse excessive, soit. Mais si le prophète Mohamet avait été remplacépar Jésus Christ le résultat serait surement le même. La religion est un droit, et le respectdes autres croyances que les siennes est nécessaire.François Hollande:Une Bonne Décision ?Par Thomas De VillemeJaneQuand François Hollande a été nommé le nouveau président deFrance le 15 mai 2012, beaucoup de questions se sont élevées. Va-t-ilprouver qu’il est un meilleur président que Nicolas Sarkozy ? Ou va-t-ilfaire regretter au Français de l’avoir élu ?Apres quelques mois, on peut dire que le nouveau président estmal parti. En septembre, Hollande introduit une nouvelle taxe. Les ouvriersqui gagnent plus d’un million d’euros par an doivent maintenantpayer des impôts de 75%, chose très contentieuse pour beaucoup de français.Mais la plus grave erreur commise par le nouveau président a étésa décision de baisser le prix de l’essence de 3 centimes par litre. Le grosproblème est que ceci coûte à l’Etat 2 milliards d’euros pour mettre enplace. Depuis son élection en mai, les sondages montrent que Hollandea perdu beaucoup du soutient dont il bénéficiait.Par contre, ce n’est encore que le début de son terme. Je penseque même si Hollande a eu quelques mauvais mois, il lui reste encoreassez de temps pour justifier ses erreurs initiales et prendre des bonnesdécisions pour le gouvernement et la France.FASNY Students Join French Food Festival in ManhattanBy Emilie KehmThe last weekend of September the French Food Festival took place atPier 54, near the meatpacking industry in New York City.The pier was reserved for chefs and venders to set up stands, selling anddisplaying products from all of France. The pier was filled with the soft atmosphereof famous French songs and the many people from New York and outsidethe city enjoying the traditional culture of food and wine. The festival was an opportunityfor different people to come together and appreciate the divine Frenchtradition in one area.Some students from FASNY had the opportunity to have a taste of themarketing world by selling products at the BWR (Brands Within Reach) stand,selling Evian and Volvic water bottles, as well as new products such as organicenergy drinks, fruit smoothies, and portable apple sauce. The students learnedto persuade and appeal to different types of customers passing by, even throughsomewhat harsh conditions, such as strong, cold breezes blowing across the HudsonRiver.“I really enjoyed the experience because I was able to talk with workersand learn about types of marketing. The French festival was a really nice and newway to approach French products that are unknown to the American community,”says one of these students, Charlotte Bigotte. These students experiencedworking at a stand and selling products as well as the opportunity to enjoy thefestival, tasting different meals made by French chefs from the city.The festival displayed many different types of stands, from selling typicalFrench products from stores, to making meals for the people to try. Each personpaid for tokens named “Mariannes” to enjoy all that the festival offered. Eachstand was categorized by region of France, selling the specialty of that region.There were all types of wine and food, from salty meats covered with sauce, totiny sweets, crepes and chocolate éclairs. The atmosphere was very enjoyable, withFrench music playing in the background, an accordion and singer, and a sectionset up for the traditional French game played for generations know as “Pétanque,”the French version of bocce. There were also displays of works of art, and othertraditional French wares.The highlight of the festival had to have been the stand where the Frenchbulldog sat waiting for a French kiss for two “Mariannes.” The students were able toexperience a community coming together to display its traditions and values to peopleforeign to it and to appreciate their own culture and traditions.“It kind of reminded me of home and my childhood. I think one of the bestparts was the fact that not only French people came but people from other nationalitieswho took interest in what the French ‘had to offer’,” Victoria Decaux said.For the first year, the French Food Festival turned out to be a hit. Eventhough it was in a pretty secluded place, not expected to host many people, duringthat weekend many were interested in trying French food and discovering newproducts. It was a nice day to enjoy during the weekend among friends and familyand an opportunity to discover a new culture. This festival might even become atradition every year from now on with a little section of Manhattan converting itselfinto a small part of France brought back from overseas.
World 11November 2012The Legacy of theArab SpringBy Michael AndersonSparked by the hopeless act of self-immolation by a Tunisianstreet vendor, the Arab Spring became a mass movementfor the propagation of equality and democracy in the Muslimworld. The underlying causes of the Arab Spring include theabuse of human rights by dictatorial regimes, rampant unemployment,and corrupt governments. In fact, protests were sosuccessful that governments from Libya to Yemen toppled andlimited democratic reforms ensued. However, with a raging civilwar pursuing in Syria and the rise of religious tension amongstdifferent factions of the Muslim community, the Arab Springhas given way to a cloud of uncertainty and volatility over theMiddle East once again.The roots of the Arab Spring can be traced back to thevictory of the Israeli forces in the Six-Day War, at which pointArab military leaders began to set up dictatorial regimes in placeslike Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. As with most dictatorialregimes, these governments became extremely corrupt andrepressive, prompting students and protesters to organize massive,well-organized demonstrations in 2011. The fall of theseregimes made onlookers assume that a smooth and peacefultransition to democracy would ensue in the Middle East. However,the power vacuum in the Arab world only fed the pre-existingSunni-Shiite divide. For example, in Egypt and Tunisia,Sunni Muslims quickly grabbed power— with the offering of amore fundamental brand of Sunni Islam due to the success ofthe Muslim Brotherhood in EgyptTo be sure, the most troubling development in the MiddleEast over the past two years is the ongoing civil war in Syria.Rebel fighters have been combating Bashar Al-Assad’s oppressiveregime in the wake of terrible massacres of entire Syrian villages.What most people aren’t aware of is the vision that these Sunnirebel fighters offer for the future of the country. Sunnis in thecountry have long been oppressed by Alawites, a minority sectindigenous to Syria of which Assad is part.The fear is that violence in Syria will ensue despite the fall of Assad’sregime because the rebel fighters are increasingly tyingthemselves with the Iranian government and Hezbollah, bothproponents of Shiite Islam, in hopes of overthrowing Assad’sgovernment. If Assad’s government falls, Syria is likely to becomea battleground for Sunni rebels, Hezbollah, and Iran.Complicating things further is the volatility of Lebanon,where Sunni Muslims preside over the north, Christians in thecenter, and Shiites closely tied to the Iranian government in theSouth. If Syria were to fall, Hezbollah is likely to take radicalaction in Lebanon in hopes of setting up a Shiite governmentmodeled after that of its Iranian counterpart.With the reigniting of bitter religious tensions betweenSunnis and Shiites in the Middle East, the Arab Spring has diedan unglamorous and unheralded death.Iran’s Nuclear Policy in QuestionBy Margaux SalzMost news concerning the Middle East has been centered on the Arab Spring countriesand Syria, but a new obstacle to peace in the area has begun to emerge. Israel, or more specificallyIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been raising red flags about whether Iran is usingits nuclear program for peaceful energy production or to create weapons of mass destruction thatmight possibly be used on the Jewish State.The reason the country’s nuclear program has been called under question is because ofIran’s unwillingness to subject its nuclear facilities to inspection by the IAEA, the InternationalAtomic Energy Association, and this reluctance has led to multiple economic sanctions that havebeen in effect since 2007. Even with these sanctions, which have started to seriously underminethe Iranian economy, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that he refuses to back awayfrom uranium enrichment, a process that can lead to nuclear energy and the production ofnuclear weapons.Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, a close ally of the US, has been campaigningfor stricter and stricter sanctions to try and stop Iran’s uranium enrichment. For the past fewmonths he has been talking to world leaders privately, especially Obama, about getting tougheron Iran, saying that they are only months away from producing a nuclear weapon. In a disturbingturn of events Israel has warned that it will not hesitate to bomb Iran’s nuclear facility if itis deemed that they have become too close to obtaining and weapon and too dangerous to theregion’s political stability.Although Israel has now toned down its threats to bomb Iran Netanyahu is still trying toconvince other nations to try new tactics in intimidating Tehran. He even used the United NationsWorld Summit as an opportunity to warn world leaders that such a weapon could be achieved asearly as next summer, and that the world must draw “a red line” to stop Ahmadinejad.Obama’s main goal in the past few months has been to try and restrain Israel’s fervor in usingmilitary force, and he has mainly succeeded in doing so. Sadly, he was only able to accomplishthis by promising to bomb the nuclear facilities himself if all else were to fail. In turn, the US andother countries are on the verge of starting new negotiations with Tehran, which will hopefullyenable them to reach some sort of compromise designed to avoid another war in the Middle East.The problem of Iran’s nuclear capabilities has been hard to solve in part because of America’sstrong alliance with Tel Aviv and Ahmadinejad’s unwillingness to compromise or even cooperatewith other nations. The reason Netanyahu is so worried about Iran’s nuclear facilities is becausethe mullahs have often said that they plan to “wipe Israel off the map” and that in its short historythe country already has many enemies in the region. Obama cannot simply refuse to help his ally,but he cannot commit himself to a full blown war either. The US has already been involved in acomputer virus that shut down Iran’s nuclear facilities momentarily, and there are suspicions thatAmerica cooperated with Israel in the killings of multiple Iranian nuclear scientists.Obama’s patience seems to be working though: Iran’s currency has fallen drastically and theeconomy has gotten so bad that riots have broken out in Tehran as merchants and small businessowners start to really feel the pain of the economic sanctions. Prices for food have nearly doubledsince last year, and the population is becoming more and desperate for relief from these hardships.Even with people rioting and taking to the street it is still unclear whether the mullahs of Iran willagree to any sort of compromise or stricter regulation of their uranium enrichment program, but itis certain that they cannot ignore Iran’s economy as it free falls. Sooner or later, the Iranian governmentwill have to face this question: Is nuclear capability worth the destruction of an already fragileeconomy and the pressure of international powers such as the U.N. and the US?
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Page 3 and 4: Tech & Trends 3November 2012The Tec
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Page 7 and 8: In Review 7November 2012Green Day S
Page 9: Spirit Week 9Spirit Week Sees Massi
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