The French Apartheid Millet System

Over at Jewish World Review is an interesting column by Jack Kelly on theFrench Intifada and the de facto division of France into what's left of its moribund self and lawless Moslem enclaves.

Kelly argues that the rioters could well succeed. And in what form would that success be?

Most of the rioters are petty criminals. But others seek de jure recognition of a de facto partition of France that's been under way for some time.

"Some are even calling for areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the millet system of the Ottoman Empire," wrote Amir Taheri, who lives in Paris. "Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs."

A de facto millet system already is in place in parts of France, Taheri noted: "In these areas, all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist hijab while most men grow their beards to the lengths prescribed by the sheiks."

Unless the invertebrates in charge can grow spines, France seems poised to become what Spain was before Ferdinand and Isabella, a patchwork of principalities where Moors ruled some communities, Christians others, with constant tension between them.

It seems inconceivable that a civilized Western nation would bargain away to a handful of thugs its democratic principles and sovereignty over much of its territory. But the Islamists may well succeed. For though what the Islamists believe in is vile and reactionary, it is something. The French believe in nothing.

Success for the rioters would come in the form of official recognition of the sovereignty of these Moslem enclaves, which would signal the end of the French Republic and serve as a watershed event in the decline of Western civilization in Europe.

The last two sentences succinctly describe the philosophical cause of the crisis, as well as serve to remind us of how leftist nihilism paves the way for religious fanaticism.

-- CAV

PS: Interesting side note: At MEMRI, there is mention of a Fatwa against rioting by the Union of French Islamic Organizations. (I guess the Moslems have acculturated themselves to at least one French tendency: bureaucracy....) This might sound encouraging, insofar as fatwas go, but then we come to this paragraph:

The leading French Islamist website www.oumma.com [hypertext link removed] posted a counter-opinion in an article titled "The Unbelievable Fatwa," arguing that this fatwa strengthened the belief that [riots] are Islamically motivated, and that it was therefore reinforcing the prejudices against the Muslims, and helping French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Moslem opposition to rioting would reinforce anti-Islamic prejudice ?!?!?!?! This paragraph is the most succint example I have ever seen of multiculturalism sacrificing the moral sanction of civilized behavior to the notion that someone somewhere might view some non-Western group in an unfavorable light.

Updates

Today: Added PS.

11-11-05: To make a point implicit in my title more explicit, I would point out that the French have basically been practicing a sort of apartheid with their African immigrant population for which I am sure they have gotten a pass, up to now, because they have been "taking care" of them with their comprehensive welfare state. But with socialism being discredited by the hour, how will France puchase the moral sanction of the left? By ceding official control of these enclaves of course!

Multiculturalism is not about equality among races or cultures, nor is it about individual rights. This is why to the multiculturalists, racial segregation is okay so long as it is done for the "right" reason, namely, the eradication of Western civilization, the very civilization that gave us the concepts of individualism and natural rights.