Ha'aretz.
The European nation has been a proud standard-bearer for secularism, but it must address the issue of integration – or risk losing a generation of immigrants to radical Islam.
Nitzan Horowitz
The Parisian parliamentarian was furious: Monsieur, I cannot tell you how many Muslim lawmakers we have. We don’t ask one’s religion. All the legislators are French, and their religion is a private matter. C’est tout.”
This Israeli was surprised. Perhaps you can just tell me how many Muslims there are? No, because no one is counting: France is a secular state with strict separation of religion and state.
The French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen stated, “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on considerations of the common good.”
The principle was thus established: Be a Jew/Catholic/Muslim at home, but French when you leave the house. For over a century, it was forbidden to collect data about religious affiliation and race in the population censuses (except for that period during World War II when they conducted a precise registration of a certain group). There is even a law forbidding religious symbols in school, basically aimed at stopping the wearing of veils.
However, something went profoundly wrong along the way. Masses of citizens born in France now define themselves first and foremost as Muslim. Some don’t even see themselves as French at all. Meanwhile, masses of other French people are obsessed with “the Muslim problem.” It is tearing up the nation. Not only via the books of Michel Houellebecq, but also via terror attacks.
The secular model is cracked. The lofty principle that views religion as a citizen’s private concern is too simplistic, and merely serves to conceal the failure of integrating the descendents of immigrants.
Take, for example, the fact that only 1 percent of the French Parliament is Muslim, while Muslims make up 10 percent of the population. There are no official figures, as noted, so these are estimates. In addition, Muslims make up a reported 60 percent of the French prison population.
And the official answer to all this? There is no problem with Muslims, because there are no Muslims – they are all French.
French secularism is vital now more than ever, but it is desperate need of repair. We are not really dealing with religions here but an unacceptable social gap. There are places around Paris where even the police fear to tread.
They call them ungrateful, brats, but the overwhelming majority of immigrant children want progress and integration. True, a small minority doesn’t want to integrate. But the question is, who are we supporting? Let face the facts: What chance do Aisha and Omar – a secular French couple whose parents were born in the same hardscrabble neighborhood – have to escape and rent an apartment in a nice area, when they’re competing with the likes of Christophe, Marie and Olivier?
The fight that’s tearing France and the rest of Europe apart is futile, because the choice is either integration or the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). Really, what other choice is there? Deport tens of millions European citizens, whose grandparents came from the former colonies to do the backbreaking work because of the continent’s declining birthrate? (And where exactly would you deport them to?) Put citizens of non-European descent in detention camps? What does Marine Le Pen suggest? Bully dark-skinned people in the street and push them into the arms of ISIS? That’s a recipe for disaster. And yet there are Jews who unashamedly support this.
The only solution is major investment in integration: at work, in housing, in representation. True, France has already invested a considerable amount, but more is needed to create mutual respect, including affirmative action. We’re not talking about deep identity politics, but we don’t mean their total eradication, either. No one likes feeling erased.
Any other move will send waves of volunteers into the arms of Islamic State. To combat this scourge, we have to get rid of the hardship and racism that ISIS cynically exploits. Give the communities hope of real integration, so they will expel this contamination from their midst.
If there’s one country that can do it and present a new model, it’s France. It has the insight and strength required. But if it loses its senses and gives in to demagoguery and belligerence, it is liable to return to its lowest point, which was among the hardest and most shameful in history.