"Social Inequality Does Not Explain The Anti-Semitism, Nor The Misogyny ... Many Muslims in Europe are re-Islamizing Themselves"

"I am pained to see that the French mode of European civilization is threatened. France is in the process of transforming into a post-national and multicultural society. It seems to me that this enormous transformation does not bring anything good....

It is presented to us as the model for the future. But multiculturalism does not mean that cultures blend. Mistrust prevails, communitarianism is rampant – parallel societies are forming that continuously distance themselves from each other."

So declares the famous French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, the son of a Holocaust survivor, in an interview with Der Spiegel online.

The interview (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog) took place a few months ago, but is no less relevant for that.

In what should be a wake-up call not only to his own compatriots, Finkielkraut goes on to say:

"...The lower middle classes  the French ... are already moving out of the Parisian suburbs and farther into the countryside. They have experienced that in some neighborhoods they are the minority in their own country.....

Immigration used to go hand-in-hand with integration into French culture. That was the rule of the game. Many of the new arrivals no longer want to play by that rule. If the immigrants are in the majority in their neighborhoods, how can we integrate them?... 

Many Muslims in Europe are re-Islamizing themselves.....

The left wanted to resolve the problem of immigration as a social issue, and proclaimed that the riots in the suburbs were a kind of class struggle. We were told that these youths were protesting against unemployment, inequality and the impossibility of social advancement.

In reality we saw an eruption of hostility toward French society. Social inequality does not explain the anti-Semitism, nor the misogyny in the suburbs, nor the insult "filthy French." The left does not want to accept that there is a clash of civilizations....

The US sees itself as a country of immigration, and what is impressive about this truly multicultural society is the strength of its patriotism. This was particularly evident after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

 In France, however, the opposite could be seen after the attacks on French soldiers and Jewish children in Toulouse and Montauban last year: Some schoolchildren saw Mohamed Merah, the assailant, as a hero....." [Emphasis added]

Read the entire interview here