Saturday, February 18, 2006
We should have listened to Jean-Francois Revel
Coincidentally, I had recent occasion to page through Jean-Francois Revel's Anti-Americanism
, written in 2002. I was quite struck by the following passage in light of both the cartoon intifada and the riots in France in November:Another myth that has been strenuously maintained since September 11 is that of a moderate and tolerant Islam...
The dominant idea in the Muslims’ worldwide view is that all of humanity must obey the rules of their religion, whereas they owe no respect to the religions of others. Indeed, showing such respect would make them apostates meriting instant execution. Muslim “tolerance” is a one-way street; they demand it for themselves but rarely extend it to others.
Anxious to show tolerance, the Pope permitted – even encouraged – the erection of a mosque in Rome, the city where Saint Peter is buried. But no Christian church could be built in Mecca, or anywhere in Saudi Arabia, for that would profane the land of Muhammad. In October 2001, Islamic opinion – echoed by voices in the West – continually asked the American administration to suspend military operations during the month of Ramadan, which was to begin in mid-November. War or no war, decency requires that holy days be accorded proper consideration – so said these well-intentioned people. A fine precept, except that Muslims consider themselves exempt from it. In 1973, Egypt didn’t hesitate to attack Israel on the day of Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish religious holiday, thus initiating what will be known forever as the Yom Kippur War.
The second element in the myth of a tolerant Islam is the claim that the bulk of the Muslim populations, especially those resident in or citizens of European countries or America, disapprove of terrorism. The imams of the principal mosques in the West have made a specialty of dispensing these suave assurances. After each wave of murderous attacks, for example in France in 1986 and 1995, and after the fatwas (in 1989 and 1993) ordering Salman Rushie and Taslima Nasreen to be killed for their “blasphemies,” these spokesmen tripped over themselves as they rushed to guarantee the essential moderateness of the communities under their spiritual leadership. Politicians and the media hastened to fall into line, so fearful are we of appearing racist....
On September 12, 2001, the newspaper Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui published an account of the jubilant atmosphere that reigned the previous evening in the 18th arrondissement, where there is a large Muslim community. “Bin Laden will nail all of you! He started with America, then it’ll be France.” Such was the sort of moderate remark hurled at passersby who didn’t look like North Africans. Or again: “I’m going to celebrate big time tonight! Those guys were real heroes. That’ll teach those Americans – and all you French are next!”
This reportage by the Parisien had no equivalent in any other publication and was passed over in silence by almost all the media. At any rate, as an assiduous listener every morning to news and press summaries on the radio, I heard no mention of it on the morning of the 12th.
While the statistics are unreliable, it’s thought that between four and five million Muslims are living in France. This is the largest such community in Europe, followed a long way behind by those in Germany and Britain. If the “immense majority” of these Muslims are moderates, as the imams and muftis and their political and media parrots claim, it seems to me that this moderation should be rather more apparent. For example, after the bombings of 1986 and 1995 in Paris, which killed several dozen people and wounded many more, it should have been easy to find a few thousand “moderates” our of 4.5 million Muslims, a good proportion of whom have French nationality – enough at least for a demonstration march from the Republique to the Bastille or along the Canebiere. There was never even a hint of one.
In Spain, there were several rallies of up to a hundred thousand people in 2001 to condemn the assassins of the Basque ETA terrorist organization. These took place throughout the country and even in the Basque Country, where protestors had reason to fear reprisals, though the terrorists’ partisans were actually very much in the minority (which was made overwhelmingly evident by the regional elections of November 2000).
In contrast, if moderate Muslims in France dare to protest publicly so little, couldn’t it be because they know that they, and not the extremists, are minorities within their communities. This explains why they are so moderate with their moderation…. The notion that the “immense majority” of Muslims settled in Europe were peacefully inclined was, during the two months after September 11, starkly revealed for what it was: a mirage.
Suffice it to say that there is at least one French intellectual who wasn't the least bit surprised that a dozen innocuous line drawings from Denmark have inspired mass murder across the Muslim world.
5 Comments:
By 
SeekerBlog.com, at
Sun Feb 19, 05:36:00 AM:
Two comments:
[1] The true proportion of "moderate Muslims" in a given population should be knowable from well-designed polling. It should not be necessary to rely upon anecdotal evidence as Revel does.
Of course, we don't get a useful answer by polling "do you consider yourself (a) a moderate, or (b) an extremist?".
As a poor example [it's an online poll of "576 adult Muslims", thus the sample isn't designed], consider the Telegraph-sponsored YouGov poll from July, 2005. The proportional answers to the questions vary significantly - I can't draw a single number from the poll. But some of the results are worrying:
However, nearly a third of British Muslims, 32 per cent, are far more censorious, believing that "Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end".
Loyalty is a different dimension than "moderate/extreme", but it's a worry when 18% of the British Muslim population feels little or no loyalty to the nation:
The sheer scale of Muslim alienation from British society that the survey reveals is remarkable. Although a large majority of British Muslims are more than content to make their home in this country, a significant minority are not.
For example, YouGov asked respondents how loyal they feel towards Britain. As the figures in the chart show, the great majority say they feel "very loyal" (46 per cent) or "fairly loyal" (33 per cent) but nearly one British Muslim in five, 18 per cent, feels little loyalty towards this country or none at all.
If these findings are accurate, and they probably are, well over 100,000 British Muslims feel no loyalty whatsoever towards this country.
[2] Revel wrote "In contrast, if moderate Muslims in France dare to protest publicly so little, couldn’t it be because they know that they, and not the extremists, are minorities within their communities."
An alternative speculation is that moderates do not go public due to intimidation by the extremist elements. Fear is an extremely powerful tool. Consider the Holocaust, or Iraq.
By Chap, at
Sun Feb 19, 12:16:00 PM:
I love that book and don't know why it hasn't gotten any traction over here in the States.
Thanks for bringing it up.
By pst314, at
Sun Feb 19, 09:52:00 PM:
"I love that book and don't know why it hasn't gotten any traction over here in the States."
I suspect that the mostly liberal book reviewers in the mainstream media mostly ignored it when they weren't panning it.
By Christine, at
Mon Feb 20, 09:31:00 AM:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By Christine, at
Mon Feb 20, 09:33:00 AM:
I wonder sometimes, what is the worse place mentally to be when IT happens.
Apparently naive, appeasing, apologizing and giving in. Or,
fully aware of what is coming and unable to really do anything about it due to the above group of people.
