Muslim Groups May Gain Strength From French Riots

Wall Street Journal ^ | Nov. 7, 2005 | JOHN CARREYROU

[FairOpinion]

Every night, Magid and fellow members of the Tabligh sect of Islam fan out across the grim projects of this poor, immigrant suburb of Paris and try to talk some sense into the angry young men who have been setting it ablaze.

"We tell them: 'if you're violent, you're no longer a Muslim. Islam is moving away from you,' " says Magid. "When they hear that, they usually feel alone and they calm down."

As France enters its 12th night of rioting, Islamic organizations like the Tabligh, which originated in the 1920s in India, stand to benefit from the unrest and emerge strengthened from it. The Tabligh advocates a strict adherence to Islam but also a disengagement from society.

While gangs of disaffected youths, mostly from Muslim families, continue to rampage, burning thousands of cars and ransacking entire neighborhoods, some of these organizations are positioning themselves as mediators who can bring back the order the government has been unable to restore.

These groups don't preach violence, but they do advocate something that is troubling Europe's secular democracies: that Muslims should identify themselves with their religion rather than as citizens.

Effectively, they are promoting a separate society within society and that brand of Islamist philosophy is seeping into many parts of Western Europe. Countries from France and Germany to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands haven't succeeded in integrating their Muslim minorities -- and Islamic organizations have carefully positioned themselves to fill the breach.

The riots "are a blessing for them because it gives them the role of intermediary," says Gilles Kepel, a scholar who has studied and written extensively about the rise of Islam in France. That, in turn, puts them in a stronger position "to force concessions from the state."

[From many - one.]

""This quote from Winston Churchill is very telling.........

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries.

Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property; either as a child, a wife, or a concubine; must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248 50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).""

That quote deserves to be posted on every thread that blithers on about promoting Creationism in the schools

[Claud]

You (and Churchill) are right in general, but it's perhaps more true that science was sheltered in the strong arms of Christianity than the other way 'round.

People seem to forget that the university system, hospitals, and even a sense that the laws of the Universe proceed according to fixed patterns (rather than unseen spirits) were all instrumental to the development of science.

The answer to Islam is to maintain both science and religion full-strength. Modern Europe is a classic example of the former without the latter, and look how quickly it crumbles to Islam.

[dogcaller]

To paraphrase the late French king..l'etat c'est Islam.

[unionblue83]

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10116

Great article as to the current and future crisis faced not only by France but by Europe in general. This is only the beginning......

[prairiebreeze]

Great article. BTW, the WSJ Online is free this week. Lots of good reading there.

ping

[From many - one.]

I took the Churchill quote to mean that Christianity benefits from alowing scientific progress.

The struggle against was in the past and I saw that as a parenthetical remark, not as some kind of put down of modern Christianity...except for those few who -do- want to mess up our teaching of science, a distinct minority.

[Peach]

A Frenchman on FNC yesterday said that the Muslim "youths" are rioting because there aren't enough after school programs. Honest to goodness.

They'll lull the naive and appeasing French into believing it's all about benefits and programs, while calling more to their cause and finding more and more places to gather and plan - only it will look like they are enjoying those benefits and "after school" programs.

[TheClintons-STILLAnti-American]

"This is scary -- basically they are saying that Europe allow them to set up separate Muslim societies, which are not answerable to the state, i.e. European countries give up control over parts of their own countries, to Islam societies."

And the "parts of their own countries" will grow until it is all under their control. The Koran teaches that all land is theirs by right, and infidels should only exist under the limitations they dictate.

[syriacus]

Muslim "youths" are rioting because there aren't enough after school programs

Midnight basketball should do the trick

[flaglady47]

"The "reconquista" that you refer to is a possibility as Texas, New Mexico and California will one day be mostly Mexican ethnicity. However, even that scenario is not as scary as the Islamic takeover of Europe."

You are right, the jihadists are much more scary. However, that does not make the "reconquista" a good thing for the U.S. It is not a good thing. They gain back by breeding that which they once lost by war. Once predominantly Mexican, the new "citizens" of these southwestern states will want to rejoin with Mexico, and become Mexican states, not U.S. states. Then what do we do pray tell?

[unionblue83]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20107
Another gem from Robert Spencer. I've read one of his books and usually follow his articles on FrontPage. I think I stated before...."this is only the beginning..."

[unionblue83]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20107
Another gem from Robert Spencer. I've read one of his books and usually follow his articles on FrontPage. I think I stated before...."this is only the beginning..."

[Raycpa]

Good cop, bad cop routine.