Actually, as silly as Prof. Fiske might sound, she may be on to something here. From the Muslim youth’s perspective, destroying their country may be exactly what “has to be done.” Consider what two Muslim girls told Friedman in his documentary. “The person I respect the most is bin Laden,” one young woman said. Her friend agreed. “I’m for suicide bombers. The highest point in Islam is reserved for martyrs.” Keep in mind these young women were born and raised in France. So much for assimilation.
Aside from the violence, France faces the same long-term problems that plague all of Europe: Too much government and too few jobs.
Unemployment hovers near 10 percent, and is said to be much higher in the Muslim areas. Still the problem is “not unemployment, it’s the police,” as one young French Muslim said. “It’s not a problem of poverty,” agrees Alain Touraine, an expert on integration in France. “What we are living through is a general process of rapid reverse integration that is the result of failures on both sides.”
And the government, while bloated, is no help. As The Washington Post put it on Nov. 8, “Political analysts said government officials didn’t focus on the severity of the violence in its first days because many were on vacation or at their country houses celebrating the All Saints' Day holiday.” Well, at least they’re keeping their priorities in line.
The lesson of France is that the west can run, but it can’t hide. Terrorists don’t care what your nation’s stand on Iraq is. They don’t even care what your religion is -- the Nov. 9 bombings in Jordan targeted American-owned hotels, but killed more than 50 people, most of whom were certainly Muslim.
Whether they’re suicide bombers in Jordan or rock throwers in France, the terrorists want to kill, destroy and destabilize. The only way to defeat them is to fight back -- as the American-led coalition is doing in Iraq -- until they give up. It might be a long struggle, but just as the U.S. helped France survive both world wars, we’ll help them win this one as well.