France Refuses to Face Its Muslim Problem

PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/GettyImages

France Refuses to Face Its Muslim Problem

The media makes a bad situation more dangerous by refusing to talk about it.

Around 150 youths shot at police and torched cars as they rioted in Amiens, France, August 13. “The confrontations were very, very violent,” said the mayor of Amiens, Gilles Dumailly.

Yet, after discussing the subject for a week, the French and international media haven’t come close to talking about the real problem at the heart of these riots. The papers are full of talk on income inequality and relations with the police. What they never talk about is the Muslim background of the rioters.

France’s Muslim problem simmers in the background, ready to bubble into full boil at any point. In 2005, French suburbs burned as thousands of mainly Muslim youths rioted. Since then, sporadic attacks on police, cars, shops and police stations have stirred fears that the 2005 riots could come back.

The latest riots follow the same pattern. The government responded forcefully to prevent the riots spreading. But why the fear of the 2005 riots? Because the cause of those riots hasn’t been dealt with.

The world’s media doesn’t want to talk about the cause.

Just as in 2005, key parts of the identity of the riots are just ignored by the media. All they think the public needs to know about the riots is that they were caused by inequality and by the fact that the poor don’t get on well with the police, and may have been mistreated by them.

To get more depth, you have to read between the lines. News reports show that the rioters were mainly the children of immigrants from North Africa. They’re mainly Muslim.

France has a problem with its Muslims. But instead of talking about the problem, looking at the grievances on both sides and trying to fix the problem, it’s ignoring it. The government talks about a group of people rioting because they hate the police. It doesn’t talk about who those people are, or what could have caused this division.

That’s not to say that the French government should be blaming the Muslims. Perhaps they have a legitimate grievance with France’s authorities. But if it keeps ignoring the problem, it will get worse. The anger will build, on both sides. Nothing was ever fixed by a refusal to talk about it.

The foolishness of this refusal is obvious when thinking about interpersonal relationships on a small scale. The Bible tells Christians to quickly and openly deal with offenses—acknowledging the problem quickly and solving it, lest it fester into more serious division. A foolish parent ignores a disobedient child, hopes the problem will go away, and then finally snaps and responds angrily after a slight provocation. A wise parent deals with the fault in the child, calmly, as soon as he or she notices it.

By ignoring the problem, France, and all of Europe, is allowing the tension to build. Eventually, the French people will snap and lash out. An outpouring of fury will hit France’s Muslims, seemingly out of nowhere.

Already there are signs that France’s patience is nearly over. Last April, National Front’s Marine Le Pen won a record 18 percent of the vote. The mainstream parties, on the left and right, support France’s ban on veils that hide the face.

But they still won’t talk about France’s problems with its Muslim youths. And so the hate and the anger builds.

Across the continent, Europe is ignoring its Muslim problem. But that won’t last forever. Watch for Europe to snap, undergoing a violent and dangerous transformation.

For more information on the confrontation brewing in Europe, read our article “Catholic Europe vs. Islamic Hordes: Round 2.”