A ‘two-state solution’ for France?
I was most struck by the sea of umbrellas of the mourners huddled in the rain on the small island which for more than a thousand years was dead center of what used to be called “Christendom,” when man, woman and child found sublime ecstasy within the Cathedral of Notre Dame. But the people were no longer praying to “Our Mother.” They were holding a collective “moment of silence” for the victims of murder at the Charlie Hebdo offices. The Divine Mother is no longer the center of this civilization. Yet they still gathered there, possibly out of habit. Or maybe because they had no place else to turn.
France can no longer be said to be the Roman Catholic country which forged Europe. In light of its recent joining with its neighbors in the EU, it might be said that it is no longer actually “France.” Islam is the second-most widely practiced religion and a growing industry. The Washington Times reports that Muslims are “segregated from French society in growing Islamist mini-states”:
A backdrop to the massacre in Paris on Wednesday by self-professed al Qaeda terrorists is that city officials have increasingly ceded control of heavily Muslim neighborhoods to Islamists, block by block. France has Europe’s largest population of Muslims, some of whom talk openly of ruling the country one day and casting aside Western legal systems for harsh, Islam-based Shariah law.
More unintended consequences of the removal of all fences in the ill-fated EU. It is not wishful thinking, but may well be Europe’s destiny, just as it was destiny for the magnificent Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) in Constantinople to become a mosque in Istanbul.
{mosads}Several years back, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, always one to speak his mind, “prompted criticism from across the political spectrum after he backed the introduction of Sharia law in Britain and argued that adopting some of its aspects seemed ‘unavoidable.'”
The most senior figure in the Church of England said “giving Islamic law official status in the UK would help achieve social cohesion because some Muslims did not relate to the British legal system,” The Guardian reported in 2008.
Should Sharia law come to France, Britain, Germany or anywhere else in Europe, it would amount to an occupation. It would create new internal states within the older (dying) states. The call then would be for a “two-state solution” because these states had in fact come to exist. Probably they do already in parts of Europe.
Europe, taking America’s lead since the Oslo Accords signed in the Clinton “co-presidency” in 1993, found the two-state solution to be the practical alternative for Israel, whose situation in the 1990s remarkably resembles those today throughout Europe, as the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo make increasingly clear. Israel’s situation then and now is much the same as those rising today in London, in Paris, in Germany and throughout Europe. We have been told by the Europeans for two decades that they will forcefully advance our lead on this: The only solution to all-out war, the only way to appease and accommodate Arab terrorism in Israel is a two-state solution.
Not now, but in time and perhaps soon, the terrorists throughout Europe, possibly in allegiance with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or al Qaeda, will bring a case to the U.N. for autonomous state status in post-Christian Europe. With some credibility, citing Europe’s and America’s long-term plans for Israel as precedent.
Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.
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