Christine Tasin
Christine Tasin is a French counterjihad activist and as of February 2015 was president of the organisation Résistance Républicaine, a movement she founded in 2010. Her group works closely with Pierre Cassen's organisation Riposte Laïque. She has edited the Riposte Laïque blog since 2007 and is Cassen's life partner. [1]
Contents
Background
According to the right-wing news site Breitbart, Tasin is a 58-year-old retired school teacher.[2]
She claims her passion for such activism stems from a couple of public events surrounding the Islamic headscarf in school, where she found that neither the executive nor the teachers' unions understood the 'problem' with the 'veil'. [1]
In the 1990s, she joined Jean-Pierre Chevènement's Mouvement Républicain et Citoyen (moderate left), to then join another, right-wing sovereignist movement, Debout la République, led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, that she left in 2011. During the 2007 presidential elections, she voted for the right-wing candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, and stated in 2011 that she felt close to Marine Le Pen's (FN) anti-immigration discourse. [3]
Tasin founded the movement Résistance Républicaine in 2010, after 'demands' from her readers to create a body that could fight against Islam. [1]
She calls herself a 'left-wing republican', 'jacobin', 'for a strong and centralising state', and claims to admire the French Revolution of 1789, period from which such adjectives derive. [3] Tasin strongly rejects the right-wing label, saying that her movement was founded 'by 'left-wing republicans' close to Jean-Pierre Chevènement, that defend the love for one's nation, and values such as 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'. [1]
Activities
Books
Tasin co-authored with her partner Pierre Cassen an anti-'Islamisation' book Assises Internationales sur L’Islamisation de nos Pays in 2011.[4]
Demonstrations
In 2010 she organised an "apéro saucisson-pinard" (a 'sausage-and-wine appetizer') in an ethnically diverse borough of Paris, justifying it by stating she was 'reclaiming a street that was taken illegally' from the 'French people'. She clearly wanted to shock the Muslim population living there, who do not generally eat pork or drink alcohol. Moreover, she claimed her action was a symbolic defence against the 'Islamic offensive'. However the event switched location to a wealthier borough at the last minute. [3]
Her association Résistance Républicaine, Bloc Identitaire and Riposte Laïque organised a joint demonstration on 9 March 2014. Around 500 people protested in the streets of Paris, demanding a Swiss-style referendum on immigration, to stop the 'islamisation of France'. Among the participants were Tasin, Pierre Cassen and the anti-Islam writer Renaud Camus. [5]
Less than a year later, Résistance Républicaine and Riposte Laïque called for a joint demo on 18 January 2015, inspired by the PEGIDA rallies in Germany.[6]
On 17 June 2016, Tasin spoke at a Paris rally organised by a monarchist party, the Souveraineté Liberté Et Identité (SIEL), in honour of the two policemen who were murdered in Magnanville. In her speech, she asked that her followers take up their 'swiss knifes and teargas' to defend themselves against 'Muslim proselytes'. Tasin spoke of the 'threat of islamisation', a theory called Eurabia developed by Bat Ye'or. She ended by saying 'I invite you to go home chanting 'Murderous Islam'! '. [7]
Convictions and appeals
in July 2014, a French court convicted Tasin of inciting violence against Muslims, after she called Islam a 'cesspit'. She also reportedly protested against a 'temporary tent-abattoir set up in a car-park near a hospital to ritually slaughter animals for Eid'. She was issued with a €4,500 fine and handed a three month jail sentence. However, her conviction was overturned on appeal in December 2014.[2]
By April 2016, she had gone through 3 lawsuits, two relaxations, including one during an appeal. For the third lawsuit, she was still awaiting the decision concerning her appeal. She also had 5 other complaints filed against her. [1]
Financial support from North American neocons
Right-wing news site Breitbart reports that her appeal was supported by Daniel Pipes US-based Legal Project, part of his Middle East Forum.[2]
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Sébastien JALLAMION, 'Rencontre avec Christine TASIN, Présidente de Résistance Républicaine', Rhones Alpes Info, 29 April 2016. Accessed 16 September 2016.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Oliver Lane, COURT OF APPEAL OVERTURNS CONVICTION OF WOMAN PROSECUTED FOR INSULTING ISLAM, Breitbart News, 22 December 2014, accessed 3 February 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Catherine Coroller , 'CHRISTINE TASIN. Ex-prof de lettres classiques, cette «laïque de gauche» a organisé l’apéro saucisson-pinard. Au côté de l’extrême droite.', Libération, 2 March 2011, accessed 16 September 2016.
- ↑ Hope Not Hate, Riposte Laïque, Counterjihad Report: France, accessed 3 February 2015
- ↑ 'Une manifestation contre "l'islamisation" de France', L'Express, 09 March 2014. Accessed 16 September 2016.
- ↑ Will anti-Islam protests take off in France?, The Local, 6 January 2015
- ↑ I. Emmanuel 'L’islamophobie décomplexée de Christine Tassin sous le slogan « ISLAM ASSASSIN ! »', Mediapart, 22 June 2016. Accessed 16 September 2016.
