When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches a cold,” was a remark made by Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor. He believed that the political developments in France were intriguing for other European nations. Similar to the French Revolution and democratic, egalitarian, and fraternal beliefs. However, this holds true even today as France is reeling under existential crisis of a different order and magnitude in a different timeline.
Exactly two weeks ago, there were a series of protests across Europe for a reason that left Europe in complete confusion. The reason being the defeat of Morocco in the hands of France in World Cup semi finals in Qatar. A victory for a nation in a football match is naturally followed by the celebrations signalling the pride the citizens take in their national identity. As a hot favourite of FIFA World cup 2022 France has a good reason to celebrate the well-deserved victory, it did not win the finals though. Who and what caused the riots deserves a case study.
Riots broke out in many places in France after Morocco defeated Portugal in the Football World Cup in Qatar. During this time, pro-Moroccan Muslims attacked the police, throwing stones at them and charging them with sticks. Rioting Muslims vandalised cars and shops. Efforts of police to stop them were unsuccessful. A large number of supporters took to the streets after Morocco’s victory. Thousands gathered in the famous Parisian square in Paris. There they shouted slogans and also made noise blowing the ‘horns’ of cars. Then they started the violence. A 14-year-old was killed as riots broke out that night in the French cities of Paris, Nice and Montpellier when Moroccans protested their country’s 2-0 loss to France at the FIFA World Cup semifinal match in Qatar.
Popular perception about France in the world is that it has been very aggressive in its secularisation campaign of the Muslims
During the same time in the Netherlands, violence erupted in Rotterdam, with riot officers attempting to break up a group of 500 football fans who pelted police with fireworks and glass, the AP reported. Unrest was also reported in Amsterdam and The Hague.
Surprisingly, Belgium witnessed similar riots “When Morocco plays, it is always understood as a risk game. There is a preconception, an understanding that there needs to be more police presence,” said a police man in Belgium.
On November 27, 2022, police used water cannons to disperse crowds in Belgium’s capital after the mood turned sour during the country’s shock defeat to Morocco at the FIFA World Cup. Riots are guaranteed regardless of who wins or loses the match against Morocco. It follows a pattern and almost all law enforcement agencies of European countries fail miserably to understand the reason behind it or at least pretending that they don’t understand it. Media, which is regarded as fourth pillar of democracy is equally mum about the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, the Official state media parrots the same lines as prescribed by their regimes to espouse. Media in Europe and not just in France is complacent in its attitude towards confronting the topic of political Islam.
For example, DW which is a State Sponsored television network of Germany covering this topic, claimed that riots are a result of mistreatment of Moroccans by the Belgium Police. The credibility of DW has gone down significantly since its coverage of cologne new year scandal in 2015 where a number of German women were raped by the refugees from West Asia and North Africa on New Year’s Eve. France 24, which is official State media channel of France, is no exception to this phenomenon. There were many instances where they failed to call spade a spade.
Public Opinion
The popular perception about France in the world is that it has been very aggressive in its secularisation campaign of the Muslims. However, there are no visible results in the last decade or so which support the above assertion. It reinforces the fact that French Police has failed to contain the radical Islam. A vast majority of French public is disgruntled by the French Government’s incompetence in checking Islamisation.
Ipsos, a prominent market research firm from France, in its poll found that 61 per cent of adults in France are of the view that Islam is incompatible with French society, compared to just 17 per cent who say the same about Judaism and 6 per cent who believe Catholicism is incompatible with French society. The number of those who believe Islam is incompatible is trending upwards and has jumped 8 points since peaking in January 2015, when 47 per cent of Frenchmen said Islam is compatible with French society. The poll also found that 77 per cent of Frenchmen want the burqa banned in public, and 79 per cent want headscarves banned on university campuses.
As one of the powerful countries in Europe, France is facing an existential crisis when it comes to dealing with political Islam. For majority of French, Islam is unpalatable and sterile, when it turns into bloody Islamism. The mainstream French opinion about it is 70 per cent to 80 per cent hostility, even media houses are hush-hush about that because they are under pressure of adhering to political correctness.
Demography and politics:
France has significant number Moroccans and Algerians who immigrated to France from 1960s to present due to Frances favorable economic conditions and its colonial past. Of which 834.600 are from Morocco and 887,100 from Algeria who are predominantly Muslims. France, along with much of Western Europe, has a political establishment that wishes to maintain ties with the Muslim world due to historic or cultural reasons. Many Europeans feel that these ties are the reason why so many Muslims immigrate to Europe, supported by the political establishment. In 1964, Morocco and Belgium signed an agreement that, over the ensuing decades, made the North African nation a major supplier of workers to the small western European country. The same happened in Germany when it opened its gates to workforce from Turkey filling its workforce shortage after the war.
There is a visible trend of increasing population of Muslims in Europe (notable in the demographics of the UK), significant cultural ties between Europe and the Muslim world (significant for France) and asylum seekers (notable for Germany). France and all European states have to deal with all three factors, meaning that the Muslim community is a real influencer on European politics and society.
The Fertility rate in France is still fairly high for European standards. It is, in fact, the highest in Europe after Ireland (the EU) and Albania (perhaps higher than Ireland’s) and so most population growth is due to natural increase, unlike in the other European countries. Between 2006 and 2016, France saw the second-highest overall increase in population in the EU and was one of only four EU countries where natural births accounted for the most population growth. The 22.3 per cent of the growth comes from North Africa and West Asia majority of whom adhere to Islam according to the survey by INSEE (The National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques) – Insee).
The question of course is whether there has been any political inclination to prefer Muslim immigrants, which may well be true in France, considering much of the Arab world still has French as a major second language because of the France colonial history.
With more than half a dozen of millions of Muslims in France (around 10 per cent of the population), most of them being French nationals, France doesn’t have much of a choice, have to live with the Muslims & Islam. And it needs to handle the problem of Islamism & its tentacles spreading in the Muslim part of French society, even if at each beheading, even the private conversation turns quickly to massive arrests and deportations to a corner of desert of all the radical Muslims present in France, with or without papers, if not worst, at least for a few days before it calms down.It is surprising how such a level of blindness, of stubbornness, of criminality and inanity has been possible in the political leadership over the span of 60 years, from the aged De Gaulle of Post-World War II to contemporary Emmanuel Macron. What has led to current state of affairs? Is it plain stupidity or Power mixed with “delusion of grandeur” that turned them insane in france?
In Europe, a US multicultural model not made for the European Nation States was enforced upon the Europe ignoring the popular opinion which has led to current state of affairs, but the roots of the problem at hand are much more ancient, a failed colonisation and a failed decolonisation, then a failed assimilation or even failed integration of the post-colonial Muslim migrants in the host countries. The same has been true for all of the actions taken by the NATO in the last 3 decades of its existence. Popular opinion was ignored and almost all European countries has become Washington unilaterally supporting its interventions in Middle east and elsewhere (Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria for the main ones)
As a result, more and more European countries including France is turning their sights toward the far-right political parties waiting to undo the actions of the predecessors to bring back the glorious past and continuing the prosperity and unity that they exhibited for the last 70 years post World War II.
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