Tony Blankley, author of The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? puts the French riots into their proper context:
Soon, the violence of the last two weeks will be seen as the opening of an event of world-historic significance.
Even when the current violence subsides - even when the French government attempts to placate its radical Muslim population by offering more welfare benefits and programs - it will not be the end of the story. A new benchmark of the possible will have been established. The flaccid and timorous response of the French government will only increase the radicalizing Muslim elements' contempt for Western cultural weakness.
As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The 'youths' do not blame the French, they despise them." As Mr. Belien reports, look what a typical radical Muslim leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Brussels-based Arab European League, says: "We reject integration when it leads to assimilation. I don't believe in a host country. We are at home here and whatever we consider our culture to be also belongs to our chosen country. I'm in my country, not the country of the Westerners."
Or consider the statement of a German radical Islamist that I recounted in my book (based on a National Public Radio news-story broadcast): "Germany is an Islamic country. Islam is in the home, in schools. Germans will be outnumbered. We [Muslims] will say what we want. We'll live how we want. It's outrageous that Germans demand we speak their language. Our children will have our language, our laws, our culture."
The Muslims seek to reclaim their historic dominance of Europe not by invading with armies but with immigrants. They will soon become so numerous that the Europeans will either have to fight them (unlikely) or resign themselves to dhimmitude, a second class status relative to the dominant Islamic culture and rule. Europe is in a battle for survival and it is just beginning to wake up to the fact.