Schadenfreude

I do not feel ashamed for gloating over the 'troubles' in France. I love what is going on over there. I honestly can't wait for the first mortalities to occur as a result of the rioting by French 'youths'.

I AM curious about what French politicians are going to do next. Are they going to realize the power of the Muslim community in their midst? And the fact that there is no placating it? And when they do realize this, are they going to appease it again? Or are they going to confront it?

There will be war (if there isn't one already). The only thing the French have for the choosing is the timing. Mark Steyn:

As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: 'French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest.'

'French youths', huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as 'French': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive 'Arab street', but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.

The funny thing is, an Islamic regime in France would certainly be an effective solution to the rioting. Rioters would be shot on sight, as they are in Egypt, Morocco and Algeria. This cure however would be worse than the disease.

The BBC has a summary of the European press' take on the French Intifada.
But no matter what color of the political spectrum the newspapers are from, none mention the factor common to nearly all the rioters: They are Muslims. Even the Times, usually a lot more sane on matters like these, tows the Party line:

In practice, France turned its back on the minorities, shunting them into suburban cités denying access to the so-called ascenseur social (social elevator) that was supposed to lift immigrants into the mainstream. Unemployment on the estates is up to three times the 10 per cent national average. Laws supposed to promote integration and oppose multiculturalism, such as the ban on Muslim headwear in schools, have often heightened resentment and the feeling of exclusion.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad, to see the media contorting themselves into such ridiculous positions: On the one hand, no country ever did more more to assimiliate and facilitate the immigrants, and on the other, they were dumped into the suburbs and left to rot. Which is it? France as a shining example of what? For the Muslim side, certainly of how to peacefully invade and eventually take over a country.

These riots will pass. These are not the final spasms of France. A time will come (tomorrow, or in a few weeks) when life in France will (seem to) be as it was before. What lessons will have been learned? One lesson could be that French politics need to take the needs and desires of their Muslim community into consideration to a much greater degree than before. And trust me, Islam already possesses tremendous influence in France.

Another lesson could be that control over the dormant fifth column in the suburbs was always an illusion. All it needs is something to ignite - if not unite - it. Wether the death of two young criminals is that catalyst remains to be seen, but it should be clear to everyone that a mob of literally millions cannot be contained, in ANY way. If the rioters ever realize their collective invulnerability, the problems Israel faces with the 'Palestinians' will pale in comparison with the full-scale civil war that will erupt in France. Intifada will not be too farfetched a term.

And I have to admit, if I was a religious person, I'd be praying for that civil war to break out. I know the Belgian government is dreading it, for the same reason I'm hoping it: It will force the issue. Will we appease them, or settle the issue in a way that allows W-Europe to remain civilized and Western?

I had a discussion with a friend a few days ago on this issue. He's intelligent but not extremely well informed. Ironically, his profession is that of a mediator, and it showed. Every fiber of his being told him that what France (and Holland too for that matter) needed is defusing of this tense situation. Polarization is the worst thing that can happen, nobody wanted it, and it could only worsen the conflict.

And I offered him the example of Hitler, and the unilateral escalating steps he took before France and Great-Britain grudglingly decided to try and stop him. Every time the Allies failed to intervene, Hitler got bolder, was less inclined to believe anyone was going to stop him. If they'd bombed Berlin when he invaded Checkoslovakia, WW2 would never have happened. If the West had taken a much stronger stance during Hitler's meddling in the Spanish Civil war, it might well have stopped there.

It was quiet on the other side of the table for a while, and then the discussion on Islam in Europe moved to wether Muslims do or do not want to be or become Europeans like the Norwegians, the Dutch and the Italians.

Apart from the generalizing, I think we're past that discussion. A third generation of immigrants is coming of age in the Netherlands, and most of them are more alienated from mainstream society than their parents are. Whatever caused it (and it was not an absence of will in Dutch society or politics), integration - let alone assimilation - failed miserably. And now we have hundreds of thousands of people in our midst who came to our country because they didn't like their own (and who could blame them?), and now they want to turn this country into a copy of theirs, minus the sunshine.

They're not leaving. They are becoming more radical in their faith. And Islam is 100% incompatible with Western-style democracy. So where and when is this train going to derail?

And this is why I welcome the riots in France, and hope they will spread to Belgium, Germany, Holland. It will force the issue, or at least force the man in the street to rethink his positions, the beliefs pounded into his head by decades of leftist fluff.

There is no end to appeasement, but the mood in the Dutch street is changing, and has been for a year now, ever since the brutal Zarqawi-style murder of Theo van Gogh. Riots, cars and buildings burned by 'disaffected youths' could accelerate this building consciousness. So, Muslims everwhere, do me favor please! Unite, and slay the infidel where you find him!