When Tolerance Becomes Suicide

November 7, 2005

For the past 11 days, Arab and African Muslims in France have wrought havoc throughout the country. Police have been shot at, thousands of automobiles and other properties destroyed, and much of France is in a state of Chaos. Yet, the French Government has made no concrete move to end the violence.

Yes, these immigrants do tend to be poorer than most French. It's a fact that immigrants to ANY country will tend to be less affluent than natives when they first arrive. Also, it is harder in Europe to rise economically than it is in North America. However, France has gone out of its way to give immigrants plenty of help.

The spark for this voracious destruction? Two Muslim teens, thinking that the police were pursuing them, hid in an electrical substation and accidentally electrocuted themselves. The incident, though self-inflicted, gave the rioters the excuse they APPARENTLY needed. Be that as it may, the conditions in which these events are occurring are not the root cause. They are, really, a consequence of the French policy of accommodating tolerance which allows primarily Muslim immigrants to not only keep their Islamic "culture," but to actively reject the native French culture entirely.

For decades, Europe in general, and France in particular, have forborne from demanding that immigrants culturally assimilate. European governments have allowed Muslim immigrants to simply bully others into accepting the idea that they (the natives) must simply accommodate Islamic ideals while Muslims have absolutely NO obligation to take on any aspect of the host countries' cultures. In France, the rioting has spread from a few isolated spots outside of Paris to infect the entire nation.

France, up to now, has refrained from using the one force in France that could end this eruption of lawlessness and terrorism: The French Army. Paris could order French armed forces to enter the affected areas and crush this insurrection. Of course, that would also be intolerant, and it seems that if there is one thing the French cannot abide being, it is intolerant. That, to the French of today, is an uncouth Anglo-American vice.

Of course, if thousands of Muslim immigrants were rioting outside of Washington, Atlanta, Omaha, Houston, or Salt Lake City, they'd most likely be met by riot police backed up, at the least, by armed American civilians. If the situation worsened, National Guard or regular Army troops would be moved in, a la Los Angeles '92 or Katrina '05.

Because two Muslim teens were stupid enough to get themselves electrocuted while hiding in a substation from a phantom police chase (which causes one to wonder if the pair were not up to something nefarious in the first place), other Muslims believe they have the right to steal, kill, and destroy. That they have done so demonstrates how the over-indulgent tolerance shown them by France has given them airs of unaccountability and invincibility. That the French continue to refrain from laying "Le Smacque-down" on the terrorist rioters shows the suicidal nature of European tolerance.