French Religious Wars
I've just been discussing the recent passage of the law banning muslim headscarves in France with my office mate. To be sure, the law is even handed, in that it also forbids Jews from wearing yarmulkes and Christians from wearing large crosses. But participants in a protest in Egypt believe that the law is anti-Islam. And of course they're right.
The prohibitions for Jews and Christians is just a figleaf for a spectacularly lame attempt to do something about the Muslim minority in France that now is over 14% of the population. Theodore Dalrymple wrote in the City Journal a frightening description of the cités surrounding most French cities, and inhabited by millions of poorly assimilated North African Muslims. Until now, there has been little if any attempt on the part of the French or their government to construct any sort of policy for assimilating the growing Muslim minority. This despite the fact that riots, crime and support for radical Islam is rampant in the Muslim neighborhoods.
This effort is far too little, and perhaps too late as well. It has the simultaneous disadvantages of infuriating the Muslims while doing absolutely nothing about the underlying problems. It is a symbolic bandaid on a metaphorical sucking chest wound.
While I on one level I am feeling a delicious sort of anticipatory schadenfreude contemplating the disaster that could be facing France in the not too distant future, the fact is that despite recent French obsteperousness, it would be a very bad thing for the west if la France became the battleground in the fight between civilization and radical Islam.
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B,
B,
I'm surprised that this is posted by you. Don't you know that assimilation is bad? You've spent enough time on college campuses to know that the true evil on Earth is assimilating foreign cultures into the native, dominant one.
Having these huge, Judge Dredd-y mega cities full of aliens is precisely what the American Left proclaims as good: everyone separated by race or language but all denigrating the same country, which they all happen to live in.
It just sounds to me like France is truly celebrating diversity.
The French are idiots. They
The French are idiots. They worship too much at the altar of the Enlightenment. They need to get over it. France is no longer the center of intellectualism and everyone else has moved on. We're in a post-industrial post-modern era and they need to stop telling everyone to give up their individuality and conform to the state ideal of rampant secularism.
What next? Are they going to tell people to stop making the sign of the cross at work before they eat lunch at their desks? Oh right. Those lazy bastards eat lunch away from their desks every day. Nevermind, the issue is moot.
I agree, France is a bad battleground for this. I just think of Algeria and French colonialism in all these African and Asian countries that are becoming heavily Islamic. I'm sure people are thinking 'Well the French never liked us anyway even before we were Muslims.' WAY TO GO France! It's just another form of persecution. Geez, it's not like Jews have had it any better there. Most Jewish kids go to yeshivas anyway where they can wear their kippahs and be what it is they want to be. I predict a spectacular rise in Islamic private schools.
Cripes... I used to wear an army jacket and an airforce artic parka to a religious school. They didn't care if you wore military insignia, even though violence in all forms is against their religion. The dress code was very sensible. Always wear shoes and don't wear something that's going to offend someone else. This debate in France is inane. Have they polled people to find out if they are offended by the veil? Heck. Veils are sexy. The bible even says so... Salome and her seven veils.
What if I lived there and wanted to wear a traditional Korean dress all day at school? Or a kimono? Or if a boy chose to wear a sarong? Would that be acceptable? I hardly think the French would say so. This isn't about religion. It's a global culture war escalating out of control everwhere.
Remembering the particularly
Remembering the particularly vicious sort of French-Islamic conflict that happened in Algeria, I think we should all be devoutly wishing for another endgame for this scenario.
Someone recently said that
Someone recently said that France will become the first Islamic nuclear power. I guess they considered Pakistan a secularist state.