It is extremely important to emphasize that the appearance of large and growing Islamic groups all over Western Europe is, in a sense, an odd and novel phenomenon. Throughout most of their 1400 year history, Muslims have always lived in their own lands and were governed by Muslim rulers. Now, almost suddenly, they find themselves transported to live in the lands of the Infidels. They don’t feel at home, or as they would say in French, “Ils ne sont pas chez-soi.” For these North African immigrants, regardless of their social or economic status, feel ill-at-ease unless they succeed in remaking their environment into a part of Daru’l Islam. Naturally, when they feel marginalized or ostracized, that desire to create their own world, even by resorting to violence, becomes unstoppable. It is too early and unscientific to predict, on the basis of a fifty-year experience, that Muslims will ever assimilate, as other non-Muslim immigrant did.

There is something missing within the Muslim immigrant community, whether in France or elsewhere in Western Europe . This is being admitted by Arab intellectuals. For example, the former Kuwaiti education minister Ahmad Al-Rab'i wrote in the November 8 issue of the online daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, an article with this headline, France : Crisis of a Society and of Minorities:  

“An angry explosion within the forgotten Paris suburbs, and its change into violent acts of destruction, requires a deep dialogue among the Arab communities in France . Arabs should never have been involved in such destructive acts.”  

“There is anarchy within the Arab community, and recent events have proven this. There are no sources of authority capable of filling the role of leadership and of bringing calm. There are no real institutions of civil society to shape and motivate public opinion among the minorities. The French of Arab origin have not managed to organize themselves culturally, or to rack up achievements in French society that would enable them to play a greater role [in society] and weaken the policy of the extremist racists.  

“The French of Arab origin must act like French citizens, and must prove to the rest of the French population that they are an essential part of French society. This means that they must rack up achievements, must be very active in improving their livelihoods and educational conditions, must fight those elements [among them] that harm the Arab minority through deviant behaviors that damage the image of the French of Arab origin, and must rid themselves of the ghetto mentality and become part of French civilization...”  

There were several responses to the article, and it was surprising that the majority put the blame on the Arab community. As one respondent emailing from the USA wrote: “The Arab minorities suffer from a lack of capabilities because of their inability to assimilate within … French society.” While another writer disagreed completely with the claims that the Parisian suburbs are similar to the poor suburbs in South Africa .”    

Finally, I would like to quote from a headline that appeared in the French daily,

Le Figaro, on November 14, 2005 , under the title, Un nouveau djihad selon des sites islamistes (A New Jihad according to Islamist Sites).

“Arab Islamist websites have taken over the crisis in the suburbs. They have begun to dialogue with one another on sites such as ‘tajdeed.net,’ alsaha.com’ or ‘alfirdaus.net.’ These global Islamist astronauts have launched their denunciations, referring to the French police force as the Crusaders, and to France as the Land of the Infidels.” And to prove their allegations, these Islamist sites use photos or videos taken from Arab television such as Al-Jazeera, or from Anglo-Saxon media such as the BBC and CNN.”

“These events are represented as a proof that Muslims are now being attacked, and some jihadists on these sites are beginning to ask whether a new front is being opened in the war between the West and Islam! One site that belongs to the Iraqi jihadists, after showing several photos of ‘ Paris on Fire,’ end with this ‘dua’ [a prayer] asking Allah to help the humiliated Muslims: ‘O Allah, grant them victory.’”

It is not my intention to defend France or any other country in Western Europe for their treatment of Muslim immigrants in their midst. The specific point I would like to emphasize is the impossibility of assimilating large communities of Muslims, as long as they keep and preserve their distinctively Islamic baggage. Their dilemma though is real, should they jettison that baggage, they would no longer be Muslims. So the problem may be summed up as an existential question: To be, or not to be?

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