Assimilation

July 14, 2008
6:15 AM CST

Now this is a fascinating case:

France has denied citizenship to a veiled Moroccan woman on the grounds that her “radical” practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

The case will reignite debate about how to reconcile freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the French constitution, and other fundamental rights, which many in France feel are being challenged by the way of life of some Muslims.

What’s happening here is that France is asking itself the hard questions, the questions all the other Western nations are either ignoring, denying, or subverting. Those questions are:

1. What, exactly, constitutes our society?
2. What defines our culture?
3. Is that culture worth preserving?
4. If it’s worth preserving, how best do we preserve it?
5. What are the immediate ways we can change what we have done in the past that have damaged our society and culture?

France has clearly decided that its future lies with Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur, and not with minarets and mosques. When I say that, of course, I mean that they have decided that if there is a question between French Christianity and Islam, especially where Islam may one day overwhelm Christianity, then French Christianity must be upheld and supported. (Note that when I say “French Christianity”, I’m not talking about Christianity per se, I’m talking about everything in French culture—the “religion” is just emblematic of the culture at large.)

In other words, what France has done is realize that there is a considerable long-term threat to their future as a nation—the nation which has so long and rich a heritage—and that at some point, they have to arrest the progress of Islam (especially the Islamic culture) which is antithetical to theirs, and which stubbornly refuses to assimilate itself into French society, preferring instead to propagate their own miserable folkways and mores.

A nation which celebrates Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Carla Bruni Sarkozy is not going to allow them to be forced into wearing burqas. Nor will they allow the Louvre to be used for target practice by artillery.

France has realized, in other words, that in spite of their national constitution guaranteeing all sorts of freedoms, that their constitution is not a suicide pact with itself. “Freedom”, to be blunt, does not mean “freedom to destroy”.

Remember that rather than having the Germans shell Paris into ruin in 1940, the French chose instead to surrender—and because of that decision, so often derided by the thoughtless, Paris and all its glories have been preserved for future generations. Note, however, that the surrender in 1940 was made under the prospect of certain defeat—and it’s clear that the French will now refuse to allow to grow even the seeds of future defeat at the hands of Islam.

Of course, they can alway reverse themselves—the French are nothing if not capricious and incomprehensible at times—but I doubt that they will. I hope that they don’t.

French culture, in so many ways a seminal one for Western culture as a whole, is worth preserving. And if it means that a few Muslims are denied their rights because they refuse to assimilate, that seems an insignificant price to pay. French culture is more important to the future of the world than Islam—according to the French.

Now let’s be clear, here: to many (millions of) people, Islam is a culture worth preserving, too. And the people who live under Islam in countries around the world (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.) may do so, in their own countries—and just as long as they don’t try to export their culture to undermine that of other countries.

What France is saying is: ”Ils ne passeront pas ici”—or, more colloquially, not in our house. ”By coming here, you have to agree to abide by our customs and become part of our culture, or we’re not going to let you in.”

It’s a lesson we Americans should take to heart in our own circumstance.

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