French national anthem in Arabic

I am not making this up.

An exception. President Jacques Chirac has just officially accepted an interpretation, recording and broadcasting of a new version of La Marseillaise... in Arabic. As if to make us forget what happened at the Stade de France during a very "politicized" game between France and Algeria, on October 6, 2001, during which La Marseillaise was booed and the stadium in Saint-Denis was invaded by "supporters" of [Algeria]. Three singers of Algerian descent, Hayet, Amira and Malya, the daughter of chaâbi singer H’ssissen, have recently taken this intiative and decided to sing in Arabic the French national anthem, not without the clever arrangement of Karim Albert Kook who mixed the first notes of Qassaman to La Marseillaise. This new version (far from being a parody) will provoke, for sure, many comments for its release. Indeed, everybody keeps in mind, here and there, the Saint-Denis incident which provoked, let's remember, a shock wave on both sides of the Mediterranean sea. We were told on the condition of secrecy that this "original creation" was expressly authorized by the highest authority of the French state, that is President Jacques Chirac himself. From the French we are told that this is one more evidence that through La Marseillaise, the French revolution remains first of all a universal symbol. It's important to note that today, liberty, equality and fraternity are values that remain to be conquered everyday in the world. As everyone knows, the French anthem that calls for a fight against tyrany mentions an "impure blood" that, by definition, does not exist. These lyrics, considered, a priori, as out-of-date, have undergone, at this occasion a light "lifting": "a softening that was made possible thanks to the richness of the Arab language," we also learnt. Finally, for the "purists" or let's more simply say the conservatives, the national anthem is immutable and should hence be able to transcend time. That said, if La Marseillaise also tells the story of a people who knew how to win its liberty, the Algerian national anthem Qassaman keeps on reminding us that the foundation of the Algerian revolution remains a challenge to... colonial France.

Hat tip: Hervé, via Balagan (who has the lyrics, for our French readers)