Is France Enlisting in the War?

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Something important is happening in France. The jihadist threat to murder two French journalists if Paris doesn’t rescind its ban on headscarves in public schools has proven one thing: these fanatics are not responding to Western excess or the war in Iraq.


They are theocratic fascists using the old methods of terror and violence to get their way. You cannot appease them, although Paris is trying to get its Arab friends to help out. But the event may shift French opinion our way and reveal to them that they too are at risk and that appeasement cannot work. Here’s Wednesday’s editorial in Le Monde. It’s illuminating in its hopes and its fears:


“They say that every cloud has a silver lining. The kidnapping of the two French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot and the blackmailing of the French government by the kidnappers to force the government to repeal its new law against wearing the Islamic veil in school has two objectives.


“The first is to show that no Western country, no democracy – even one that, like France, opposed the American intervention in Iraq – is sheltered from the fanaticism of the soldiers of the ‘holy war’ launched on September 11,2001,by Al Qaeda.


“The second is to show that France, despite or even because of its status as the largest Muslim state in Europe, has become a preferred target of this ideological war….[But the terrorists have missed their mark.]


“Even if the current consensus in France remains fragile, even if ambiguities remain, even if the law against wearing the Islamic veil remains for many Muslims a strike at their religious liberty, we can do nothing but rejoice to see French Muslims on the front line of defense of the Republic.”


But for how long? And how solid will French Muslim support be if France really begins to fight back?


The Jihadist Strategy


Meanwhile, here’s an extract from a fascinating as usual dispatch from the “Healing Iraq” blogger in Baghdad, Zeyad.


He quotes one Mohammed Bashar Al-Faidhy, spokesman of the Association of Muslim Scholars, in a speech delivered on Arab satellite networks earlier this week. If you want to see how attuned these maniacs are to divisions in the West, read on:


“To our brothers in the Islamic Army of Iraq. We wish to inform you that we totally understand the extreme rage that is boiling in your hearts regarding the French decision to ban the Hijab in their schools, and we share you your disappointment. We officially condemned the French decision at the time…


“However, killing the two hostages without considering the grave consequences of such an act would be harmful to our cause and would isolate us from our international support…


“Our goal is to besiege the Americans politically in every spot of the world and this act is not serving that goal…You can see how the agents of the occupation are already using this incident against us…


“It is our duty as scholars to point out to our brothers what is wrong and what is right…France as an anti-occupation country has been helpful to our cause…


“You might say that the French stance is not an altruistic one and that they have their own political interests that caused them to disagree with the Americans, and I am not going to say that is not true but it is also our goal to turn them against each other to serve our cause so France has a strategic importance for us.”


This is a fascinating and potentially important moment in the war on terror. If the jihadists take the war to France now, we may get the Western unity that has so far eluded us. And that can only be a good thing.


All the President’ s Girls


Jenna and Barbara Bush really did steal the show – at least for five minutes. The word “sex” emanated from the stage. No, this wasn’t an ad lib. The marketers who are promoting the policies of James Dobson and Rick Santorum were making jokes mocking the prudery of people who think “Sex and the City” is something only married people do and never talk about.


Like the president’s gaffe about not winning the war on terror, this could never have been uttered at a Democratic convention without the Dems being described as out-of-touch metrosexuals. But the Republican delegates, knowing that this kind of front is necessary to win over the American middle, didn’t seem to mind.


Compared to the earnest, mature, almost somber Kerry daughters, these two were valley girls, cooing, pointing to friends in the crowd, giggling over their lines, and generally showing the maturity of the average “American Idol” contestant.


I have to say I loved it – if only for its authenticity, for the sudden interruption of an actual reality into the sometimes surreal script of this convention. So we have an Austrian-American bodybuilder with a history of orgies and a couple of spoiled, hard-drinking party girls fronting for a party whose platform is inspired in large part by Biblical fundamentalism.


Yep. It would be hard to convey a more vivid reflection of our fractured culture than that.


The Inclusive Party


The Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois, Alan Keyes, has been off the leash lately. Last week, he called Mary Cheney, the vice-president’s daughter, a “selfish hedonist” because she is a lesbian. To duck this kind of abuse, Ms. Cheney didn’t even appear with her family on the podium Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Family Research Council has been distributing fortune cookies in New York with the message: “Real Men Marry Women.” I guess Jesus and the pope aren’t real men.


The New York Sun

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