If you live in France and are a non-Muslim you may be concerned about the large populations of Muslims warehoused in your state's Zones Urbaines Sensibles ("ZUS") or Zones De Non Droit ("ZND"). Not to worry. Contradicting massive and manifest evidence -- 20%-50% unemployment, riots in the banlieues, ongoing car torchings, gang violence, M. Mo (PBUH) cartoon riots, more gang violence, more riots, and manifest racism -- a new Pew survey finds that French Muslims are absolutely over the moon about the French experience.
MUSLIMS IN EUROPE:
ECONOMIC WORRIES TOP CONCERNS ABOUT
RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Few Signs of Backlash From Western Europeans
July 6, 2006 (Pew Global Attitudes Project, "PGAP") - Muslims in Europe worry about their future, but their concern is more economic than religious or cultural [NB]. And while there are some signs of tension [vid. supra] between Europe's majority populations and its Muslim minorities, Muslims there do not generally believe that most Europeans are hostile toward people of their faith.
The poll establishes the primacy of "economic concerns" from these numbers:
Percentage of French Muslims Very Worried About...
[French Muslim responses]
Unemployment 52%
Islamic extremism 30%*
Decline of regligion 21%*
Influence of pop culture 17%*
Modern roles of women 16%*
Ah, well, if it's less than 50% the Pew people don't see much of a problem.
Please note that only the first category deals with "economic concerns", the other four deal with religious and cultural identity. So if we reweight the numbers here is the picture that emerges:
"Economic concerns" 43%
Identity concerns 57%
Other interesting numbers:
What Do You Consider Yourself First?
[French Muslim responses]
A citizen of France 42%
A Muslim 46%*
Not to worry. The Pew people wave this away by playing their American trump:
Americans, however, split about evenly on this question: 42% say they first think of themselves as Christians versus 48% who think of themselves primarily as Americans - a divide close to that found among French Muslims.
You see. It's just like in America, which for once is an exculpatory claim. Except this lame comparison ignores glaring differences between the two polled groups. America, where Christians make up a majority of the polity, is a country founded on Christian principles and traditions with an exceptional emphasis on individual conscience and freedom and where God comes before country and stands guarantor of individual rights.
Modern France, where Muslims make up a minority of the polity, is a country founded on secular principles with a contemporary emphasis on individual homogenization within the state and where the state, of necessity (as the guarantor of individual rights), comes before the individual.
We would also point out, Western values are derivative of Christian values and therefore congenial to Christians. Islam on its face is antithetical to Western values (e.g., racial and gender equality, freedom of conscience). It's in the Koran.
So, you see the primacy of Muslim identity among French Muslims in a secular France is the same as the primacy of Christian identity among American Christians in a religious America -- except for context and the lack of similarities that map and the utter irrelevance of the comparison. There is no problem of assimilation of Christians in America. There is no problem of exclusion. And Christians in America are not warehoused as wards of the state in lawless public housing estates (scil., ZUSs and ZNDs). We suggest France best ignore the Pew people's sunshiny findings. When a plurality of France's fastest growing demographic identifies itself as something apart from France, well, France has a problem.
How Many Europeans Are Hostile To Muslims?
[French Muslim responses]
Just some / Very few 60%
Many / Most 39%*
The question is about hostile "Europeans" not hostile "native French", making this a rather filmsy if not meaningless number. A French Muslim can be expected to have a reliable impression of his compatriots' hostility, but what is the basis for his determining the hostility of say an Estonian or a Pole? Or the whole of Europa? Further, the question on its face has a built-in assumption, that Muslims in Europa stand apart from "Europeans". A like question in an American poll -- How many Americans are hostile to Catholics? -- would be utterly baffling. As American Catholics do not consider themselves an excluded group, the only meaningful distinction is between Catholics and other groups of the American polity -- How many Democrats/liberals/feminists/Wiccans are hostile to Catholics?
How Concerned Are You About The Future Of Muslims In Your Country?
[French Muslim responses]
Very concerned 38%*
Somewhat concerned 34%*
There is no sans souci number for this question. But a net 72% of French Muslims worry over their future in a French diaspora.
Sense Of Islamic Identity In Your Country
[French Muslim responses]
Not too / Not strong at all 25%
Very / Fairly Strong 34%*
Is Islamic Identity Among Muslims Growing In Your Country?
[French Muslim responses]
No 42%
Yes 58%
Is Growing Islamic Identity Good Or Bad?
[French Muslim responses]
Bad 38%
Good 59%
Sympathetic With Youth** Who Rioted In France?
[French general public responses]
No 54%
Yes 46%
[French Muslim responses]
No 36%
Yes 63%
* No problem here, the finding is less than 50%. Not to worry.
** The elusive mysterious rioting youth of France. Who are they? What do they want? And why is 63% of the Muslim community sympathetic to them?
Here are some questions to French Muslims we think missing from the PGAP survey:
1) Is being a Muslim an impediment to employment in France?
2) Do you live in subsidized public housing?
3) Do you feel trapped economically? Socially? Physically?
4) Do you consider France/Europa to be part of the Ummah?
The survey never looks across its questions at the contradictions in its findings, especially if it clouds up the sunshine. For instance, the survey is anxious to report that Europeans (presumably excluding European Muslims as above) think immigration from Islamic regions (the Mideast and North Africa) is a good thing (Overall 53% / French general public 58%). But these same Europeans do not believe Muslims want to assimilate (Overall 66% / French general public 53%), fret that Islamic identity is growing (Overall 62% / French general public 68%) and that it is a very bad thing (Overall 73% / French general public 87%), and they are scared to death about the rise of Islamic extremism in Europa (Overall 75% / French general public 76%). This seems to us to be a major disconnect. Just what sort of identity do Europeans think Islamic immigrants will be packing? And from what group is Islamic extremism most likely to emerge?
"Economic concerns" make a single appearance in the Pew report, the above worry about unemployment (52% / 43% reweighted), everything else has to do with religious and cultural identity. But even though the survey occupies itself with identity issues -- with a whopping 72% concerned about their future as diasporic Muslims -- the Pew people have headlined the report's "Economic Worries". It is nicer to pretend that all Muslims are worried about is getting a job. Everybody worries about that. Eurabia is a jobs issue. Everything's copesetic. Not to worry.
The MSM picks up this survey abstract and reports it verbatim, without the bother of that insightful critical news analysis that dogs every utterance of GWB. Here is the NYT. Here, the IHT.
And just who is this Pollyanna pollster? The PewResearchCenter, which sponsored this Pew Global Attitudes Project poll, is a highly esteemed and reputable polling organization that always manages to find the numbers to fit its conclusions, which coincidentally track with politically correct fairy tales, dreamy multiculturalism, and the usual lefty anti-this-and-thats.
And even as the Pew people provide their cheering take on the Muslim situation in France and Europa, the news continues to report the disappointments and dismal lot of Muslim immigrants in France.
FEW HAVE FAITH IN POWER OF FRANCE'S
'RAINBOW TEAM' TO END RACIAL DISCORD
PARIS July 8, 2006 (Scotsman) - In just eight years, the mythical belief in the magical "Black-Blanc-Beur" (Black-White-Arab) effect of the French team's multi-ethnic origins has all but disappeared, eroded by the harsh political reality of a country where over 20 per cent of voters say they sympathise with the extreme right wing party of Jean-Marie Le Pen."In 1998 we spoke of a multi-cultural France enriched by its diversity," said Vincent Tiberj, professor at the leading French university, Science Po.
"But the political debate has changed. There are tensions now and almost half the French population no longer consider religious and cultural diversity to be an asset."
FRANCE: A COUNTRY OF TWO HALVES
PARIS July 10, 2006 (Guardian) - In 1998 the French celebrated joyously when their multi-ethnic squad won the World Cup. But in the eight years since, the country has been riven by racial tension, and that sense of national unity is a distant memory.'Following the victory of 1998 there was very quickly a very strong sense of disappointment,' Geraldine Faes, author of a book on the black community in France, said. 'The riots were a result of the frustrations following the hopes of nearly a decade ago.'
'For most people the situation has not really changed,' said Boris Mendza, of the campaign group The Burden of Memory of which France defender Lilian Thuram is a member. 'There is no real integration into the Republic.' Others point out that the 17 players [of 23 or 74%] in the French squad from ethnic minorities outnumber the 11 black members of parliament (out of 577) [or 2%] and that token efforts in recent years - such as the appointment of a black anchorman to a key national news bulletin - have done little to disturb the predominance of the white, middle class elites in the French media and the business world.
PFFT (What is this?): Not to worry 0 | Rayonnement français 0
Bonjour ,
1)Pour une fois totalement d'accord avec "Pave" sur le danger mortel que représente l 'Islam en France.
2)"Pave" est un club d'adorateurs de Bush , il me semble."Pave" doit donc être capable de m' expliquer le point suivant.
3) Pourquoi Bush a-t-il le culot d'exiger de nous qu ' un pays de 100 millions de musulmans (la Turquie) entre en Europe ?
4)La vérité c'est que les Yanks qui hurlent (comme "Pave" le faisait encore il y a peu) à la défense de l' intérêt national US bafoué soi-disant par la France , se contrefoutent de l' intérêt national français.
5)En conséquence: nos intérêts nationaux sont totalement divergents . Les USA se comportent comme une puissance étrangère hostile à NOS intérêts :les dirigeants français (Villepin ,Chirac) d' une certaine manière ont en pris acte et je ne vois pas ce qui peut indigner "Pave" dans cette attitude.
Débrouillez-vous avec VOS musulmans: Good luck to ? your country in Iraq !
