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Ten years ago, in Paris for the first time, I left my hotel for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.
I wasn’t on the street ten minutes before a Moroccan or an Algerian gentleman walking in the opposite direction bent over to pick up something on the sidewalk. That something turned out to be a large gold coin that he immediately held up to my face. Speaking in broken English, the man proceeded to tell me a story about the “found” coin, and how it could be mine if only I paid him so many Euros.
Fortunately, I was able to make my exit after telling the gentleman that I had just arrived in Paris and had not yet exchanged my American money. Later that evening, after dinner out with friends and a car trip to visit the historic estate of novelist George Sand in the Nohant countryside, I returned to my hotel – but before bed I revisited the Champs-Elysees.
The fabled Avenue, to my surprise, had turned into a giant pissoir.
Men of Middle Eastern extraction were relieving themselves on the sidewalk in full view of passers- by. The men had obviously come from clubs where they overindulged in alcohol, a violation of Islamic canons. I also spotted affluent Muslim women in gem-studded chadors walking in the direction of the Hilton.
I’d never seen “evening dress” chadors before, but this was Paris after all.
Back at the hotel, I asked myself why there seemed to be so many Muslim immigrants (migrants?) in Paris.
Then I recalled the writings of and life of Albert Camus, the novelist and essayist born in French Algeria and a pioneer in the fight for Algerian independence. Ironically, Camus always believed that Algeria should remain a part of France. It is for this reason, perhaps, that his legacy in Algeria has all but been forgotten.
In Algeria, Camus is known as a “colonialist” and not a freedom fighter.
As one article in The Smithsonian has stated:
“Despite Camus’ monumental achievements and deep attachment to his native land, Algeria has never reciprocated that love. Camus is not part of the school curriculum; his books can’t be found in libraries or bookshops. Few plaques or memorials commemorate him.”
The cancel culture/Muslim mindset in Algeria has erased Camus.
The French-Arab connection also got me thinking about the life and writings of Andre Gide (who wrote about his erotic encounters with underage Arab boys in his journals). Add to this list Jean Genet, the great criminal French writer whom Jean-Paul Sartre canonized as a genius in his book, ‘Saint Genet.’ Genet, even when he became a “respectable” man of letters, was known to steal valuable artifacts from the houses he visited, including the home of his publisher.
Genet is buried in Larache, Morocco, on a hilltop near the sea. His grave has become a place of pilgrimage for leftist artists like Patti Smith, but also for poor Moroccans, even children, who know nothing about his works.
During his life Genet supported the Palestinians and later the Black Panthers in America. Yet he somehow managed to not lose his head when he cavorted — homosexually speaking— freely among so many Arabs during the last ten years of his life in Morocco.
Given this small literary mosaic, it’s easy to see how France has always had a sort of love affair with Arab-Muslim culture.
The greatest number of Muslim immigrants to France occurred during the so-called con-temporary era around the time of the colonial wars of independence (1954-62).
The massive waves of Muslim immigration at that time had a “reparations” feel to it, as if France was imposing a penance on itself for the “crime” of colonialism.
The recent rioting, anarchy and destruction of property in much of France is rooted in the killing of Nael M, an Algerian teen shot by police as he drove away from them after being told to remain in his vehicle.
The thug-like behavior pattern of driving off despite being told to stay put by police is not an uncommon phenomenon in American cities. It puts police in an impossible situation: one wrong move to contain the suspect may result in the suspect achieving hero-martyrdom status.
Rioting was especially heavy in the city of Marseille, a city that Genet himself bemoaned as a city of thieves and despots, although in 2023 I hear that French real estate speculators are buying second homes there.
In 2020, “Death to France” was the rallying cry of tens of thousands of Muslims in France when President Macron spoke out against the dangers of “Islamist separation.” The leftist ‘Guardian’ wrote about the protest with a piece entitled, “Anger Towards Macron grows in Muslim World.”
But Macron has been on both sides of the fence regarding Muslim issues. Occasionally, he even goes out of his way to placate obvious thuggish types, such as when he posed for a photo with a semi-nude gangsta Algerian or Moroccan, grimacing in the manner of the young men standing beside him because he wanted to be seen as “cool.”
One only has to watch the gangsta video that Nael M appears in to get a sense of what’s happening in France.
What purports to be just another rap video where the hands of the performers move to music (and stand as symbols for revolvers), turns out to be, if you watch closely, a call for revolution.
We see the songster-star of the video drawing “windows” or “squares” in the air, then winking while he points two revolver shaped fingers towards the viewer while the hordes of teens and even younger children behind him, all do the same thing. The incessant unchanging beat (think Ravel’s Bolero, street style) goes way beyond “entertainment.”
The video is hypnotic and seems to carry a violent, not so subliminal message.
The video makes it clear what must happen if France — and all of Europe — is to be saved: Muslim migration into western Europe, and especially France, must end.
“A teenager was killed. That is inexplicable and unforgivable,” Macron said during a visit to Marseille. Macron also added that the shooting had “moved the entire nation.”
Yes, it “moved” the nation of Islam within the nation of France to riot and destroy the country.
Ex-presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, called Macron’s comments “irresponsible.”
As Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s Vox party, has stated,
“Europe is threatened by mobs of anti-Europeans who smash police stations, burn libraries and stab to steal a mobile phone, who are unwilling to adapt to our way of life and our laws. They think we are the ones who have to adapt.”
But this old cautionary message has fallen on deaf ears.
Oriana Fallaci reported on Muslim migration in books like ‘The Rage and The Pride’:
“…We cannot bear a migratory wave of people who have nothing to do with us. Who are not ready to become like us, to be absorbed by us like ….Who, on the contrary, aim to absorb us. To change our principles, our values, our identity, our way of life…. I am saying that in our culture there is no room for the muessins, for the minarets, for the phony abstemious, for the humiliating chador, for the degrading burkah…”
Abascal dismisses the idea that police brutality or poverty are the root causes of the violence, maintaining that marginalized Christians, who might also be subject to police brutality or poverty, never commit acts of violence like this.
All of which means, if France is to be saved, it must return to its traditional Catholic roots.
France, as John Paul II declared on May 30, 1980 before his departure to Paris from Rome,
“Was the first nation of the West to declare itself the daughter of the [Catholic] Church. For centuries, France made a special contribution to the Catholic Church through the enlightened and heroic testimony of her saints, the doctrinal power of her masters, and the apostolic courage of missionaries…”
Although Catholicism remains the largest declared religion in France at 29% of the population, the figure is constantly falling, as reported by the European Conservative.
“The Muslim religion, which is the second largest, has been on the rise for a decade and now accounts for 10% of the total population.”
Additionally, the report states that the transmission of faith in families shows the rise of Islam, “since 91% of people raised by Muslim parents consider themselves to be Muslims, while 67% of people raised by Catholic parents say they are Catholics.”
Pew Research states that with no migration, the Muslim population of Europe by 2050 will be 7.4%, while with migration that percentage will climb to 14.0%.
Some militant Muslim leaders in France, however, see a fully Islamist nation by 2050.
Contrast this to a New York Times piece in 2022, “The Quiet Flight of Muslims From France,” in which Muslim residents cited “a feeling of not belonging,” and “nagging questions about their security.”
The Times also quoted fears among Muslims about the rise of conservative political leaders like Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour.
‘The Times of Israel,’ reporting on the Paris riots, mentioned new found fears among Jews in France that “they will become targets of violence.”
The soul of France belongs to Christianity. It belongs to the countryside of Jeanne d’Arc, Avignon, the Palace of the Popes (sans Francis), St. Therese of Lisieux, the shrine of La Salette in the French Alps, the shrine of Lourdes, Mont St. Michel, and to the great cathedrals like Chartres and Notre Dame.
In May of this year, a record breaking 20,000 young traditionalist Catholic pilgrims under the sponsorship of The Remnant, made their way on foot from Paris to the cathedral of Chartres in homage to the Blessed Virgin.
Chartres, the cathedral that Henry Adams called “Our Lady’s Play House,” where pilgrims in the Middle Ages who couldn’t afford a trip to the Holy Land once visited in droves, where Jeanne d’Arc once prayed, holds the key to France’s spiritual future.
This is the France of the ages, the France that must replace the endless procession of gem-studded chadors on the Champs-Elysees.
J.J. Sefton says
“Why returning to its Catholic roots is the nation’s only hope.”
France’s Catholic roots were ripped out in the no man’s land of the Somme 100 years ago.
Kynarion Hellenis says
There has been a continual assault upon France’s Catholic roots since the “enlightenment” revolution at about the same time as our American revolution. France killed the hierarchy / monarch and replaced Christianity with the god of Reason, whose statue was placed in Notre Dame. The motto remains unchanged since the revolution: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.
“Liberty” is license. “Equality” is sameness. “Fraternity” is the universal brotherhood of license and equality.
France might be called “France,” but it will become like the Muslim countries it once defeated.
Lightbringer says
That is true of all of Europe, except for England, whose Anglican roots were ripped out in most. Yet C. S. Lewis became a Catholic, and a very devout one, after what he saw and did in the war.
Paul Marks says
France was defending herself in the First World War – the Imperial German Declaration of War in 1914 was a tissue of lies. As for the Catholic Church – the Church was treated by the so called “Separation” of 1905 (which was really a plundering of Church property – just as what happened in 1790 had been plundering). Such behaviour by the French State against the Catholic Church can not be honestly defended.
Joelle says
Oh, no. France shiwed its Catholic roots when its devout Catholic sons arrested wvery Jew in Paris down to the youngest infant, imprisoned them in the Vel d-hiv and cheered to watch them die in agony.
It is oathetic and shameless that the author of this piece celebrates French catholicism as if it were the civilized antidote to Islam’s violence..
He gets away with inly because so few European Jews remain alive to shout him down.
Ugly Sid says
How about a return of the Bonaparte.
The door of opportunity is unlatched for the ambitious.
Kynarion Hellenis says
Would France reject a Christian prince?
Ugly Sid says
In two generations will France offer a single Christian Church?
Lightbringer says
What a terrifying idea!
Hardball1Alpha says
Still trying to find an answer from the scholars and other experts, as to when exactly did the grand-pooh-bah of the Moops declare that the quest for the global caliphate had ended, and they’ve laid down their scimitars in favor of western assimilation.
Silly me, Biden the scholar ended this 1400 year-old war by fleeing the battlefield… putting the likes of Spencer out of a job.
sumsrent says
Not sure what you’re saying…
But… satanic islamic prophecy tells muslims that they have to retrieve all lost lands in order for the new Caliph/Mahdi returns…
And this also includes many places in Europe and Israel itself…
Kasandra says
Ms. Fallaci was right on target. The French, among others, deceived themselves into believing the Muslims coming there would embrace liberty, equality, and fratetnity. Instead, they failed to recognize they were coming there in the spirit of conquest. Maybe our leaders should read a little about Islamic doctrine and history before letting millions of them inside or borders.
Kynarion Hellenis says
She was beautiful, intelligent and a great lover of her people.
THX 1138 says
She called herself a “Christian atheist”. I have no precise idea what she meant by that absurdity.
But if she meant she believed in Jesus of Nazareth as her moral ideal, as her highest ideal of moral perfection, if she meant that her moral ideal is dying for sinners, if she meant that she was an altruist, then Socialist-Globalism, not freedom, liberty, and capitalism is where her “Christian atheism” would logically lead her.
By the moral standard of Christian altruism, it is morally virtuous for Europe and the West to invite the Muslims to crucify them to death. For Europe and America to offer themselves up as a Shmoo for the Muslims to devour in a morally perfect act of altruistic self-sacrifice.
Intrepid says
So I saw the word ‘Christian’ in the title and, like Pavlov’s dog when the the bell gets rung, I started salivating uncontrollably. After all, the world needs yet another of my lesson’s on Christianity and altruism.
I just knew I had to offer up yet another screed about my hatred of Altruism and Christianity. Because 1,00,000 times just isn’t enough.
Ayn would be so proud of me.——THX
Intrepid says
Oh for an edit button. Sorry about the typos.
Fred A. says
The only real solution is to return the blacks and the Muslims back to their homeland in Asia and Africa. Anything less is unacceptable. That will not happen because the leaders in the French government do not have the ability to think and the French people keep electing the wrong people. So suffer the consequences or develop a backbone and elect the right people to stop immigration from Third World countries. Don’t complain!
sumsrent says
Shameful!!! How ignorant the world is…
France’s riots were over a muslim… with muslims rioting…
The satanic catholic fake church teaches they worship the same fake god allah of satanic islam…
Thus… satanic catholicism won’t solve France’s issues… it’ll only enhance them…
Wake up people!
ed says
I will never visit Europe again due to the moslem invasion
THX 1138 says
Don’t worry, if the Democrats and the RINOS have their way, the Muslim Invasion will come to visit you here in America. It already is.
Intrepid says
So what are you going to do about it. Wave an Ayn Rand book at the Muslims? You are just so “solution oriented”
Fred A. says
THX1138:
The readers should understand that America has millions of Muslims here already. We have already suffered a few terrorist’s attacks. America has one in the House of Representatives. There are a couple of Muslims who are judges. They are present in local governments as well. We even had a President who was a Muslim at one time. Maybe he still is a Muslim down deep.
Intrepid says
Gee, you assume that the readers on this site aren’t aware that there are at least 5 million Muslims in this country. But somehow you are? Your endless arrogance is simply astounding. Guess what….you aren’t the smartest person in the room, and you never will be.
Intrepid says
Ooops. Sorry Fred. This comment, when it’s approved, was supposed to be directed at THX
DC says
France stopped the spread of Islam north from Spain in 748 at the Battle of
Tours.
Charles Martel dropped the hammer on jihad.
The “return to Catholic roots” better be accompanied by the GUN.
Only that worked then………and only that will work now.
whirlwinder says
Islam wiped out 3/4’s of Christianity when they conquered North Africa and then Constantinople. Christian victories at Vienna and Tours stopped Islam from conquering Europe but Islam is back and on the verge of conquering Europe as the French riots have shown.
Catholicism will not save Europe. Only European armies destroying the invading mortal enemy of Islam will save the Continent.
John Smith says
Robert R. Reilly knows something about Islamic culture, having been VOA director during the Iraq War and author of “The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis”. (An aberrant, anti-intellectual school of thought took over Islamic philosophy 1,000 years ago.) He wrote an essay “Winning the War of Ideas”. claremontreviewofbooks.com/winning-the-war-of-ideas/ He notes that unless you are converting the intellectual class of your opponents, you don’t have a corps of fellow travelers within your opponents’ culture to do the heavy lifting of converting their unthinking class. But the principle works both ways. If you aren’t evangelizing your own culture away from barbarism, it won’t matter much whether or not you are attacked from outside or inside. Your own children will be ready to knife you as you sleep. This year on a Chartres pilgrimage, thousands of young people showed the spirit of the Vendee. (Read “La Vendee” by Anthony Trollope gutenberg.org/files/5709/5709-h/5709-h.htm .) The insiders those young people have to resist attack from are the leadership of their own Church…whom they must evangelize by showing them the futility of betraying their own tradition. Another of Reilly’s idea warfare principles is that you must know your opponent. But again, you must first know yourself, your own forgotten culture. And you must practice culture yourself, relighting the smoking wick of writing, singing and making poetry based on your recently silenced culture.
THX 1138 says
Judaism and Christianity are as dangerous to reason and rationality as Islam and modern totalitarianism.
“All three major religions have had to confront the ideas of the great Greek philosopher, Aristotle. Averroes tried to integrate Aristotle with Islam. Maimonides tried to integrate Aristotle with Judaism. Aquinas tried to integrate Aristotle with Christianity. All necessarily failed.
Rationality cannot be integrated with faith; nor reason with anti-reason; nor, in philosophy, fact with fantasy….
History reveals a two-thousand-year death struggle of faith versus reason; and though it is true that religion is not the only form of irrationalism plaguing the modern world, it remains one central form of it—most obviously in the case of Islam, the least-reformed of the three Middle-Eastern religions. The religious “method” of faith is irredeemably irrational and, as such, antithetical to human life. Conversely, Aristotle’s method of observation-based rationality is essential to human life. For any individuals genuinely concerned to promote man’s earthly life, the takeaway lesson from this monumental struggle is that they must support reason over faith—which means: Aristotle over religion.
The death struggle of reason versus anti-reason continues. Everyone must choose a side.” – Objectivist philosopher Andrew Bernstein
“The Enduring Positive Legacy of Aristotle – Aristotle Versus Religion (7 of 7)” – Andrew Bernstein
Intrepid says
So I saw the word ‘Christian’ in the title and, like Pavlov’s dog when the the bell gets rung, I started salivating uncontrollably. After all, the world needs yet another of my lesson’s on Christianity and altruism. Replete with a homework assignment from Andrew Bernstein (who?) — THX
Wow…..a two-thousand-year death struggle of faith versus reason. Looks like the Greeks lost out on this one because Greek philosophy, your foundation and bedrock of the rational and scientific beginnings and aspects of Western Civilization, folded like a cheap suit in the face of the spread of Christianity, which absorbed the teachings of your pagan heroes. Without Christianity Greek history would resemble those ruins that everyone takes selfies at. Without Christianity no would remember or care about the Greeks.
I wonder, where are the great works of music and art based on the teaching of Ayn Rand. Without Christianity there would no “Messiah” by Handel, no Passion stories by Bach, no Mass settings by Palestrina, Tallis, Byrd and hundreds of other Renaissance and Medieval composers. It would be a pretty empty world bereft of art and music
Domenic Pepe says
When France and Europe opened their nations and societies and culture to Islamic invasion, that was the beginning of the final chapter for Europe.
Same for the USA opening its border with Mexico to the illegal invasion of millions of third world people and Mexican drugs that murder more than 100,000 US citizens every year.
George says
Yes, the open border is murder of America by our government, and suicide by democrat voters.