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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 26, 2005 Case In Point France race riots show dangers of a nation apart By Chris Honoré Tidings Correspondent From late October to early November of this year, riots swept through the suburbs of Paris. Hundreds of vehicles were torched, buildings were burned and French citizens accosted. At least one was killed. The riots began when two teenagers, believing they were being pursued by the police, ran to an electrical power substation and were electrocuted. That night young Muslims took to the streets, throwing rocks and bottles at cars and police, vandalizing businesses and schools. A shaken French government was slow to respond and seemed initially paralyzed by the civil unrest escalating across the country. As we in America watched, the looting and burning, were the result of poor social conditions and high unemployment in the outlying high-rise housing projects that surround Paris. France has, we were told, a demonstrable problem with young North African and black African minorities who feel alienated from French society and have struggled for decades to get jobs and recognition. Social unrest and upheaval are all too familiar in America, and so the explanations that appeared in the media as to the causes of the Paris rioting seemed reasonable and generally accepted without question. However, there is more to be understood about the riots than can be captured in the all too facile explanation mentioned above. What occurred in Paris and in small cities across France may instead be a cautionary tale, not only for France, but for America and beyond. France — like Germany, Britain and Holland, as well as Scandinavian countries such as Denmark — has taken in millions of immigrant workers over the past six decades. France today has more than five million Muslim residents, the largest Muslim community in Europe. And it has long been the policy that once an immigrant receives a French passport, then ipso facto that individual is French. In reality, that is clearly not the case. There has always been a tension between the assumption by a host country that those immigrants who come to its shores come with the understanding that they will assimilate, that the dominant culture — the language, the laws, the megacustoms — will be adopted. However, what has happened in France, and in other countries, such as Germany, is that enclaves have formed in which assimilation is not viewed as a prerequisite to living in the host country. Historian Bat Ye’or wrote in “Eurabia: The European Union and the Arab League” about a series of agreements between the European Union and the Arab League which states that Muslim immigrants in Europe would not be compelled to adapt to “the customs of the host country.” This has resulted in the formation of unassimilated Islamic enclaves, parallel societies, within Europe. European leaders have assured the Arab League, according to Ye’or, that they would aid in the creation and maintenance of such enclaves. Consequently, across Europe and in Britain, generations of Muslims have been born whose primary allegiance is not to the country of their birth but instead to their cultural-religious communities and to the land of their parents’ birth. Some feel an abiding resentment and antagonism to what they regard as the “unclean,” larger society. Recall the surprise and then profound dismay of millions of Brits when the identities of the suicide bombers in England were discovered to be sons of Britain, not covert agents who slipped into the country. What has occurred in France has been the evolution of isolated Islamic communities, often referred to as “no go” zones, where the cultural-religious laws, called Sharia, which are based on the Koran, in effect transcend the laws of the state. This is not to be confused with multiculturalism and diversity; rather these are communities that strongly reject the idea of assimilation or integration into European societies. The Arab European League (AEL), a Muslim advocacy group operating in Belgium and the Netherlands, has stated, “We do not want to assimilate and we do not want to be stuck somewhere in the middle.” AEL founder Dyab Abou Jahjah said, “Assimilation is cultural rape. It means renouncing your identity, becoming like the others.” If France or Germany, for example, cede power to Sharia, to the parallel societies, then what must happen is that its laws and beliefs, such as those having to do with human rights, must be subordinated to the traditional laws of Islam. Both German and French societies uphold the equality of women. Classic Islam views women in a decidedly different way. As described by three Muslim women who are also German authors — Seyran Ates (“The Great Journey Into Fire), Necla Kelek (“The Foreign Bride”), and Serap Cileli (“We’re Your Daughters”) — life for Muslim women and girls is one of oppression, isolation, imprisonment and brutal corporal punishment. For many, it’s an existence where they are viewed as chattel, subservient, forced to appear in public heavily draped in burqhas, or, at the very least, wearing concealing scarves. In Germany, in the past nine years, there have been 49 “honor killings” in the Muslim communities, most of them women who have been judged as being “too German,” or have defied the laws of the family or community. This begs the question of what a government should do, or can do, if women’s rights are violated, but the host country has ceded authority to a separate nation within its borders. It is possible that France has struck a bargain with these enclaves from which it cannot retreat, meaning the “no go” zones have slipped completely out of its control. Though it is incumbent on all Americans to be tolerant of, and understanding of ethnic, and cultural diversity — we are a nation of immigrants — the baseline for such acceptance should always be assimilation. You and me, our parents or their parents, came to America, ideally, to become Americans, embracing all that that means: language, customs, loyalty to the republic, adherence to its laws and its Constitution. America is a rainbow to be sure; but we are Americans first. In other words, we respect multiculturalism, we honor and celebrate our differences, and we ask in return that all who come here assimilate. What other choice is there? Case in Point is a weekly editorial column designed to provide in-depth commentary on current events. 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