[Eric in the Ozarks]

What’s the cause of Islamophobia, Yascha ?

[hocndoc]

Here’s one reason: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/911-detainees-seek-to-disrupt-opening-of-arraignment-at-guantanamo-bay/2012/05/05/gIQAnGzh3T_story.html.

Note that the civilian woman lawyer is in a hijab and asks the other women to put on a garbage bag, too.

[darrellmaurina]

Clarification to all — I have serious concerns about both Sarkozy and Le Pen, and the other options to the left are beyond unacceptable. I don't want people here thinking I support either Le Pen on the one hand, or on the other hand, unbridled immigration of Islamic radicals who hate the West.

Le Pen is definitely right about the danger of Islamofascism, and for that she should be commended. Some of her other positions are seriously problematic but she's correct there.

The problem in a French political context is that radical Islamic fundamentalism is changing the secular and anti-religious presuppositions of the modern French Republic, and in that dispute both sides are wrong. Le Pen and the traditional conservative and liberal parties of France have correctly identified radical Islam as a major problem, but all three have come up with fundamentally wrong solutions.

It would be nice if French nationalism were returning to its Roman Catholic roots (or better yet, the Huguenots), but there are far too few people left in France who have any sense of a Christian worldview. The result is that that even when they correctly identify the problem, they come up with wrong solutions because the right solutions aren't even on their radar screens.