Here is a follow-up on a post I wrote a month ago about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign to preserve France’s historical Christian heritage and unique culture as large numbers of immigrants fail to assimilate. Although this writer in the Australian tries to put a negative spin on the plan, it strikes me as an eminently sensible one. If people don’t talk about the problem, cowering in fear of being labeled racists for example, then bitterness (or worse!) will surely follow.
NO one can accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of mincing his words over Islam, minarets and national identity. We thought he had retreated after his national debate on French identity began degenerating into a forum for immigrant-bashing. Today, he is back on the parapet, warning Muslims to keep a modest profile or face the failure of moderate Islam in France.
[….]
“Christians, Jews, Muslims, all believers regardless of their faith, must refrain from ostentation and provocation and . . . practise their religion in humble discretion,” wrote Sarkozy/Guaino.
Addressing himself to Muslims, he reassured them that he would fight to protect them from discrimination. “But I also want to tell them that anything that could appear as a challenge” to France’s Christian heritage and republican values would “doom to failure” moderate Islam in France.
Sarkozy’s point was that Muslims must integrate into French society, embracing the Republic’s values and traditions. It is legitimate to examine the malaise in Europe, he said, mentioning globalisation as well as Islam. “This dull threat that so many people in our old European nations feel, rightly or wrongly, hanging over their national identity, we have to talk about it together lest repressing this feeling ends up feeding a terrible bitterness.”
Incidentally, this applies to all immigration issues, when the Left especially tries to shut people up with charges of racism and bigotry then bitterness follows. I don’t see it in this article, but have seen a few articles lately that say (wishfully, I think) that somehow Muslims are integrating better into the US than in Europe. We will see when our numbers of Muslims reach the same percentage as they are in Europe. We’ll know if, as in France, rioting unemployed Muslim immigrants begin burning cars by the thousands. We need to talk now.