A philosopher grapples with Islam, secularism, and their place in society.
.... We have ... borrowed from Islamic propaganda the notion of Islamophobia that now plays a major and troubling role in our social and political life. It has no meaning, but it has a function. The notion of Islamophobia makes it possible tendentiously to disqualify all speech on Islam or on the Muslims.
Anyone who begins a sentence by the term “Muslims” knows that he must be careful about the words that follow, for an offense is in the making. It is possible to speak calmly of Muslims only in order to give voice to legitimate complaints that they address or could address to the rest of the social body. …
We can speak of Muslims to say that they have too few mosques and of Christians to say that they have too many churches. Once the notion of Islamophobia is established and validated, it is impossible to speak of Muslims except to state their grievances, and they cannot speak except to complain. [217 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT] Why is it that in every country that has a muslim population they create problems? Take a look at Albania, France, Germany, Sweden, and here in the US with the muslim terrorist.
[ANOTHER] France has made great strides in evolving beyond religion. Why should they take steps backwards by pandering to backward stone age beliefs?
[ANOTHER] In France, the concept of secularism, or laïcité, is a little bit different than it is in America. The French conceive of secularism as freedom from religion, rather than freedom of religion. It entails that religion be a private affair, removed from public life. It was formally adopted in 1905 in order to dismantle the power of the Catholic Church. The idea that laïcité somehow targets Muslims is laughable given that it was originally intended to exclusively target Catholicism.
On another note, I have quite a few good friends in France, most of whom are refugees or the children of refugees who fled South East Asia during the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge.
Since arriving in France, these people have become doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. - all productive members of French society. Absolutely no one from this community has ever committed any terrorist attacks in France, nor do they complain about being "marginalized" by French society. They chose to integrate, despite coming from circumstances at least as difficult and a culture at least as foreign as more recent migrants from the Islamic world.
[ANOTHER] France - as does the US and the rest of the EU - has absolutely no obligation to accept immigrants from any particular place. The logical position would be to end immigration from places whose people have the most difficult time reconciling the way they want to live their lives with the norms of their prospective host country.
France is not just a place on a map, it's a culture. It's sad to see it willingly let that heritage be subsumed by a vague globalist credo that anyone should be able to move anywhere they want and impose their values.
[ANOTHER] Remigration works better than accommodation. [The Atlantic] Read more
