Thursday, October 26, 2006
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Matthew Kaminski: To Keep the Banlieue From Burning - Will France ever integrate its Muslim immigrants? - '... It matters, then, that France's anti-terrorism laws are the toughest anywhere in the Western world. French prosecutors can hold terror suspects for years without charge; the definition of "links to terrorism" is loose. Every mosque in France is monitored. Since 9/11, the government has cracked down on foreign financing and moved to train "French imams." All this--more than the slow integrationist trend that Messrs. Laurence and Vaisse celebrate--may be the reason why France hasn't been hit by terrorism since a wave of subway bombings in 1995. The French approach to assimilation, with its insistence on strict secularism and its dirigiste firmness, does not make for an American-style melting pot. But it may well carve a better path to civil peace, over time, than the policies of Europe's other Muslim-populated countries. The path would run smoother if France could undertake a major economic reform...'
