EURABIA ON THE MARCH?

A study in contrasts in the Economist and Spectator’s coverage of the turmoil in France. While the former puts the emphasis on economics and the failure of assimilation, the Doughty Street organ thinks the clash of civilisations is already sweeping through the banlieues.

Here's the (subscriber-only) Economist:

France has never been shy to articulate what the country stands for and what it expects of its citizens. The ban in 2004 on the Muslim headscarf in state schools, not to mention the frequent expulsion of radical imams, make its philosophy crystal clear. Given the fresh emphasis on citizenship in multicultural countries, this is in some ways a strength of the French system. Yet, at the same time, the failure of minorities to get far up the social ladder shows the limits of the French model.

At the top end, the contrast with multicultural Britain is noticeable. There are now 15 British members of parliament from ethnic minorities, including Muslims; some of the best-known broadcasters are black or brown. In France, aside from those representing its overseas territories, there are no minorities in parliament. French television news anchors are almost exclusively white, as is much of the police force.

The piece doesn’t ignore the role of Islam. But it’s treated as a secondary factor:

Young Muslim men in particular seem to feel emasculated by their failure to get jobs like their sisters, victimised by the police and unrepresented by the society they live in. Ready potential recruits, in other words, for seductive ideologies such as radical Islam.

Of the country's 1,500 or so mosques or informal prayer places, some 50 are run by radical Islamists, according to a report last year by the Renseignements Généraux, a domestic intelligence-gathering service. Of those, 30 are in or near Paris. Officials are particularly concerned by French Muslims now in Iraq, and by recent converts, especially those who found their faith in prison; over half the country's prison population is Muslim, according to a study by Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist.

Compare that with the Speccie’s front cover "Eurabian nightmare". Scary stuff. Yet when you read Rod Liddle’s lead feature, "The Crescent of Fear", you find a jarring lack of detail. He’s right to take a shot at "lazy, lefty British journalists", but he himself doesn’t have much more to offer. He visits one Parisian suburb - "the bit where they’ve shoved all the darkies" - encounters some black youths who apparently use the word "jihad" three times, and he notes, in his usual ironic geezer style, that there aren’t many white faces around. And, um, that’s about it. Oh, and his Eurostar train ran over a wild boar en route to Paris. Turn the page, and Patrick Sookhdeo is proclaiming that France has "apparently" been struck by "Muslim secessionist violence". Again, I’m not arguing about the troubling demographics, and I don’t need persuading that Islamists are doing their best to brainwash the young. But still….

Comments

[yellerKat]

"his Eurostar train ran over a wild boar en route to Paris" - just outside *Rouen*.

Journalists strike again!