"What has France Wrought?

Submitted by Dr. Steve Carol (United States), Nov 8, 2005 at 15:52

THE RIGHT QUESTION: WHAT HAS FRANCE WROUGHT?
By Dr. Steve Carol
On Oct. 28, 2005, as a result of French police pursuing two Muslim youths who were accidentally electrocuted, riots erupted in Clichy-sous-Bois, on the outskirts of Paris, France. For twelve days the rioting, violence, destruction of property have continued and spread to over 300 towns in that nation, showing a measure of advance planning. In fact the episode with the two boys was only the excuse for the uprising, some are already calling it an "intifada," similar to Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in September 2000, was the excuse for Yasir Arafat's pre-planned second "Al Aqsa" intifada.

France thought that its historic policy of appeasement would spare it participation in the global conflict against Islamofascism. In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, France paid "protection" money to the Arab terrorist groups to stay away from hijacking French aircraft. This appeasement failed. Arab terrorists attacked Orly airport in Paris, and hijacked Flight 139 to Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976.

Through the 1970s, 80s, 90s and into the 21st century, France sold arms to Arab despotic regimes, including a nuclear power plant capable of making uranium for weapons to Iraq, and curried favor for lucrative business contacts and oil. Now its policy of coddling to Arab/Muslim extremists has come home to roost in France itself. This is what French policy has wrought!

Will the French continue to follow their historic pattern and appease the Muslim extremists in their midst? France's tough minded Minister of the Interior, Nicholas Sarkozy, has called for a zero toleration policy as far as urban violence is concerned. But he seems to be in the minority. The Premier, Dominique de Villepin, and others call for negotiations and accommodation. They are reverting to the appeasement role model. Perhaps they can use their own advice to Israel as to how to handle such events.

Interestingly enough the French Muslim rioters are referring to the areas in which they live as "occupied territory" and demand a French pullout. The rhetoric is reminiscent of the Arab demands for Israel's pullout from the "occupied territories" which means Israel should pull out of Israel! Is the same pattern now unfolding in France? Most in the French leadership have urged Israel to negotiate with terrorists? Will the French now negotiate with the perpetrators of the current wave of violence? Will the French government remove non-Muslim inhabitants from the towns in which the violence has occurred? Will they dismantle the local municipalities and allow the Muslim extremists to establish their own "Francostan" within the evacuated areas inside the borders of the republic? Will the French government arm the Muslim extremists so that they will provide "law and order" within their Muslim areas, and be secure in the fact that the extremists will not turn the guns on the French themselves? Will they agree to a crescent moon on the tricolor?

When all this appeasing fails in France, will they once again revert to historic form that when all else fails and France is in dire jeopardy or has been conquered, call for help from "les Americains."

France is at a momentous crossroads. What action will France take to undo what it has wrought?

Dr. Steve Carol
Prof. of History
Official Historian "Middle East Radio Forum" www.middleeastradioforum.org
Senior Fellow Center for Advanced Middle East Studies http://www.cames.ws/index.html
Scottsdale, Arizona

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