I never thought that I'd be defending the French government in this space, but as the saying goes, there's a first time for everything. As tempting as it is to argue that the French are getting what they deserve after smugly lecturing the United States on race relations in the aftermath of Katrina, a more thoughtful response is needed.
After nearly two weeks of widespread violent rioting in nearly every suburb in France, it seems things have finally settled down. The riots started when two African youths, being chased by the police, were electrocuted while trying to scale a fence. Muslim and African populations saw this as just the latest incident in a wave of discrimination, and began burning cars and causing general mayhem.
Granted, not all the rioters are Muslim. And granted, France has been less than welcoming to these newcomers. A front page story in The New York Times discussed the travails of Yazid Sabeg, the only prominent Frenchman of Arab descent at the head of a listed French company. "I've known discrimination all of my life," Sabeg said. He added that the prejudices only grew stronger the more prominent he became. In 1991, he was the leading investor in a group that took over CS Communication and Systémes, which he now runs. But when he applied to the government to become a defense contractor, a ministry official told him, "You're called Sabeg, and that's a problem for us." Translation - you're of Algerian descent, so we don't trust you.
This isn't an intifada on European soil, as some pundits are asserting. But if it raises questions about the French government, it raises even more as to the ability of these new immigrants to assimilate.
What was so striking about the coverage of the riots, however, was that this latter issue was almost never raised. Editorial writers quickly castigated the French government as a bastion of racism and identified the French model (with its premium on "Frenchness" and disallowing of affirmative action programs) as the root of the problem. Yet there was no coequal call for these immigrants who, after all, had moved to France on their own volition to adapt to the new culture.
"The old approach gets in the way of real affirmative action or community outreach," declared a New York Times editorial. "Efforts at imposed integration, like the ban that keeps Muslims girls from wearing head scarves in state schools, have only antagonized immigrants."
This is nonsense. The French government has no obligation to institute affirmative action programs, and it's silly to think they will make a difference. Indeed, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy endorsed such an approach in a highly publicized visit to an immigrant slum a couple of months ago. The response? He was jeered and pelted with rocks, and only escaped serious injury with the aid of police officers standing by.
As an aside, I find it odd that the Times will continually denounce 10 Commandment displays in the United States, but all of the sudden, will think that separation of church and state isn't a good idea for Europe.
Perhaps most disturbing, a good amount of those rioting are not recent immigrants, but "the sons of African and Arab immigrants," in the words of the Times. In many ways, it seems like second and third generation Muslims in Europe are becoming more radicalized instead of more integrated.
Look at last year's murder of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands. Van Gogh, a descendant of the famed painter, was biking through downtown Amsterdam when he was attacked by Mohammed Bouyeri, who shot him six times as van Gogh pleaded for his life. Bouyeri then cut his throat with a kitchen knife, almost severing his head. He then took an Islamist manifesto and with his knife impaled it on van Gogh's chest - in broad daylight.
Bouyeri was incensed by a short film van Gogh made that documented the oppression of Muslim women. Though born and bred in Holland, he decided to avenge this wrong with murder - and got help from the Dutch welfare system. "He [Bouyeri] had the time to plan this," van Gogh's mother told the court, "because for three years he was on unemployment benefits."
Ditto for the more recent London bombers. Three out of the four of them were second-generation Pakistani Brits. They grew up in Britain, accepted government generosity, and thanked the taxpayers that supported them by killing them.
Europe is finally waking up to this problem, and one hopes that it's not too late. It's certainly true that the majority of Europe's Muslims are peace-loving, but they have a special obligation to control this violence. Let's start hearing the fatwas against bin Laden and the rioters. Let's stop thinking that unregulated immigration brings only good. And let's stop criticizing people like Sarkozy, who called the rioters "scum" and "thugs."
He's right.
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