Friday, March 29, 2024
 
As France & Europe Face Refugee Crisis, Readers More Realistic Than Columnist

NEW YORK, NY Nov. 3 (DPI) – A NYT columnist lamented that France is no longer being French as the beleaguered nation grapples with the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pushing toward western Europe. And readers, put off by the writer’s “elitist,” “simplistic” and ” pretentious” take on the grave situation, let her have it.

More than 400 reader comments on Pamela Druckerman’s column headlined “France, Paradise Lost” all either gently criticized or roundly ridiculed the writer, who claims special insights as a one-time resident of Paris (see publisher’s photo below).

Readers rightly pointed out that France, facing an existential crisis in recent years, has every right to be circumspect in admitting more refugees, especially from a part of the world that’s shown intolerance and hostility toward France and its culture in recent years. Druckerman asserted that France’s intellectual tradition should make the nation more accepting of the latest influx of refugees.

Wrote one reader:

Europe cannot possibly absorb millions of Islamic refugees whose native cultures and customs are fundamentally incompatible with those of Europe. That is the hard truth that kindhearted idealism cannot overcome. It is reasonable for the French in particular to fear these new immigrants given recent terrorist attacks by French Islamists. One might say that France must be more welcoming if it is to live up to its own ideals. However, in this case, its own ideals are a weakness that could lead to internal turmoil and ultimately to the destruction of France itself. That would be a terrible loss for the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/france-paradise-lost.html

Most recommended comments:

It’s simply facile to pen an article like this, without addressing the culture clash issues that leave Europeans less than enthusiastic about immigration from Muslim countries.  Women living as second class citizens, hiding their heads under scarves, or their faces behind veil is the sticking point for me. I don’t want to live in a country where gender-based oppression is something we have to “tolerate.”  Women are free in the West, and it’s hardly surprising that we bristle at large number of arrivals whose religion makes a fetish of female submission.

Had this all been reversed and Christians and Jews sought asylum in Muslim countries, what indeed would be the Muslim response? This whole situation is throwing my liberalism into disarray, saying on the one hand that we must as humans help women and children at all cost, but on the other, warning me like Cassandra at the gate of Troy, that my liberalism is a weakness that will condemn me to ruin. I pity these homeless people, but also feel a certain resentment against them, knowing they would not help me had it been the other way around, and knowing that they have been all inculcated with anti-Western anti-Semitic doctrines that makes them dangerous. Am I opening the door to a needy grateful person or one who may in time blow up the train I take to work every day. The frog and the scorpion story comes to mind.

Druckerman cites the “elephant in the room: the fact that most of the migrants are Muslims,” and she decries the fact that many French citizens are wary of this large influx of Muslims, but she doesn’t discuss why that might be. Well, here’s a possibility: Should Muslims become a significant voting block, they will certainly vote for Sharia law, and Sharia law is antithetical to the free and open society Druckerman and most French citizens cherish. This is not “Islamaphobia” ; it’s reasonable conjecture. It’s time to bring this “elephant” out into the open. Islam is not compatible with free and open societies, as is evident from even a cursory look at every Islamic country in the world today. This elephant won’t go away, and will very likely cause havoc throughout Europe in the near future. Paradise lost indeed.

Who can forget the “pleasant multicultural experiences” enjoyed last January by the staff of Charlie Hebdo and the shoppers at the kosher grocery store?

Gee, it’s not like the French have had any problems…oh, wait. There were two terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, one in 2011 and one in 2015. Because of cartoons of Mohammad. But gosh, that was 10 months ago. What happened to forgive and forget? What a completely tone-deaf column.

Islam’s adherents cannot be both true to Islam and true to the spirit of France. That is why few Muslims participated in the marches supporting Hebdo after the killings – insulting the Prophet is beyond the pale. Thus, fully integrating Muslims into France means that France must change to accommodate them. As the percentage of Muslims increases the pressure to make that change grows. It is understandable that many French object.

Pamela Druckerman (Random House Books)columnist

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