No, because the parents of the criminals here weren’t refugees. Most likely Algerians, Tunisians, etc. who as subjects of the French empire were legally entitled to passports and citizenship. Better to say the problem is not helping refugees, but rampant colonialism.
Except I don’t think that’s the problem either. And the implication that “some percentage of their children… will become terrorists,” as if this is a natural and unavoidable progression (50% will be male, 10% will be left handed, 0.1% will become terrorists) is pretty asinine. Last time I checked the French government has a better approval rating amongst muslims than the rest of the population, and yet there’s plenty here for a poor young muslim with no job and no prospects to lash out at and blame for his misfortunes. The restrictions on hijabs stand out as a great excuse for any devout to point to as evidence of state persecution. But it’s probably the casual, day-to-day racism in the form of “Arabs aren’t French” (despite the fact that France forced them to be French, despite hundreds of thousands of Muslim Arabs who died defending this country during the world wars), that would really wear a guy down.
You should meet the guy who installed a fire alarm in my apartment a couple of days ago. He was French. “Well, my mother was from Algeria, but that doesn’t count because she was Jewish, you understand?” He would have set you straight, given you some real insight.
If you’re actually interested in educating yourself, I would recommend the Moroccan films “The Sea is Behind” and “475”. They certainly don’t hold anything back, but they are significant as films made by Muslims, exposing the worst parts of their religion and forming part of a widespread populist movement in that part of the world towards modernisation and the gradual abolition of what remains of Sharia law. You might almost say that they’re doing exactly what you suggest in standing up against the hijacking of their religion, but you just didn’t give enough of a shit to notice.
Very, thanks. Listening to the radio here there are a lot of pundits who think they are being clever by saying “it’s not about religion, it’s about ideology.” They are just as wrong. We created a power vacuum, some nasty men took it, and now they’ll use whatever spin and lies they can to hold on to their claim and make it seem legitimate. They don’t care if you are devout or even if you believe their rhetoric, just as long as you are desperate and impressionable enough to do as you’re told.
So, nice to see a commentator in the media cutting through all of that. Thanks again.
