← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Bardamu
Thread ID: 20915 | Posts: 37 | Started: 2005-11-06
2005-11-06 13:34 | User Profile
November 6, 2005
BY MARK STEYN
Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. ''By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night,'' I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.
Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of the Guardian reported in London: ''French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest.''
''French youths,'' huh? You mean Pierre and Jacques and Marcel and Alphonse? Granted that most of the "youths" are technically citizens of the French Republic, it doesn't take much time in les banlieus of Paris to discover that the rioters do not think of their primary identity as ''French'': They're young men from North Africa growing ever more estranged from the broader community with each passing year and wedded ever more intensely to an assertive Muslim identity more implacable than anything you're likely to find in the Middle East. After four somnolent years, it turns out finally that there really is an explosive ''Arab street,'' but it's in Clichy-sous-Bois.
The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.
The French have been here before, of course. Seven-thirty-two. Not 7:32 Paris time, which is when the nightly Citroen-torching begins, but 732 A.D. -- as in one and a third millennia ago. By then, the Muslims had advanced a thousand miles north of Gibraltar to control Spain and southern France up to the banks of the Loire. In October 732, the Moorish general Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army were not exactly at the gates of Paris, but they were within 200 miles, just south of the great Frankish shrine of St. Martin of Tours. Somewhere on the road between Poitiers and Tours, they met a Frankish force and, unlike other Christian armies in Europe, this one held its ground ''like a wall . . . a firm glacial mass,'' as the Chronicle of Isidore puts it. A week later, Abd al-Rahman was dead, the Muslims were heading south, and the French general, Charles, had earned himself the surname ''Martel'' -- or ''the Hammer.''
Poitiers was the high-water point of the Muslim tide in western Europe. It was an opportunistic raid by the Moors, but if they'd won, they'd have found it hard to resist pushing on to Paris, to the Rhine and beyond. ''Perhaps,'' wrote Edward Gibbon in The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, ''the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.'' There would be no Christian Europe. The Anglo-Celts who settled North America would have been Muslim. Poitiers, said Gibbon, was ''an encounter which would change the history of the whole world.''
Battles are very straightforward: Side A wins, Side B loses. But the French government is way beyond anything so clarifying. Today, a fearless Muslim advance has penetrated far deeper into Europe than Abd al-Rahman. They're in Brussels, where Belgian police officers are advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan, and in Malmo, where Swedish ambulance drivers will not go without police escort. It's way too late to rerun the Battle of Poitiers. In the no-go suburbs, even before these current riots, 9,000 police cars had been stoned by ''French youths'' since the beginning of the year; some three dozen cars are set alight even on a quiet night. ''There's a civil war under way in Clichy-sous-Bois at the moment,'' said Michel Thooris of the gendarmes' trade union Action Police CFTC. ''We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting.''
What to do? In Paris, while ''youths'' fired on the gendarmerie, burned down a gym and disrupted commuter trains, the French Cabinet split in two, as the ''minister for social cohesion'' (a Cabinet position I hope America never requires) and other colleagues distance themselves from the interior minister, the tough-talking Nicolas Sarkozy who dismissed the rioters as ''scum.'' President Chirac seems to have come down on the side of those who feel the scum's grievances need to be addressed. He called for ''a spirit of dialogue and respect.'' As is the way with the political class, they seem to see the riots as an excellent opportunity to scuttle Sarkozy's presidential ambitions rather than as a call to save the Republic.
A few years back I was criticized for a throwaway observation to the effect that ''I find it easier to be optimistic about the futures of Iraq and Pakistan than, say, Holland or Denmark." But this is why. In defiance of traditional immigration patterns, these young men are less assimilated than their grandparents. French cynics like the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, have spent the last two years scoffing at the Bush Doctrine: Why, everyone knows Islam and democracy are incompatible. If so, that's less a problem for Iraq or Afghanistan than for France and Belgium.
If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If burning the 'burbs gets you more ''respect'' from Chirac, they'll burn 'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim summation of the new Europe: ''The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict.'' Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.
[url]http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn06.html[/url]
2005-11-06 14:19 | User Profile
[quote=Bardamu] If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If burning the 'burbs gets you more ''respect'' from Chirac, they'll burn 'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim summation of the new Europe: ''[B]The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict.[/B]'' Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages. Dear God, yes. For my part, I will be offering fervent prayers during the Liturgy today for the great peoples of Europe (both on the Continent and in their daughter countries) to finally, finally begin to awaken from their self-loathing, death-worshipping, autogenocidal stupor. It's high time for the Moors to be expelled again.
2005-11-06 14:24 | User Profile
[quote=Steyn]Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.
In the so-called 'Dark Ages' Europeans realized that Muslims were the enemy. Only after being blinded by fervent humanism did this obvious truth become verbotten. May this veil be lifted from western eyes, and soon.
2005-11-06 14:29 | User Profile
Mark Steyn is somewhat conservative, but he is also very much a member of the Establishment in good standing. That he is writing about this is a very encouraging sign.
2005-11-06 14:41 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]Dear God, yes. For my part, I will be offering fervent prayers during the Liturgy today for the great peoples of Europe (both on the Continent and in their daughter countries) to finally, finally begin to awaken from their self-loathing, death-worshipping, autogenocidal stupor. It's high time for the Moors to be expelled again.[/QUOTE]
I'll join you in that prayer.
2005-11-06 14:45 | User Profile
[quote=Quantrill]Mark Steyn is somewhat conservative, but he is also very much a member of the Establishment in good standing. That he is writing about this is a very encouraging sign.
Indeed. France, first daughter of the Church (and thus Western Civilization), will also be the first nation of the West to crusade against this modern Islamic invasion. Unlike Serbia to the East, France is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons -- which would make 'humanitarian intervention' difficult to say the least.
2005-11-06 14:51 | User Profile
If I am not mistaken, Neocon Mark Steyn is a former member of the IDF. It is funny for him to bring up Tours, considering that a sizable number of the Moorish administrators in Spain at that time were Jews. I can see why he left that inconvenient fact out of his essay. In those day Western Man had a longer memory than people do today and in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella would take care of this problem along with the Moors.
2005-11-06 14:52 | User Profile
[LEFT] [CENTER] [LEFT] [CENTER]
[B]"A man of faith[/B], he believes that decadence is not inevitable and that it is not true that our country must stop making history and submit itself to the history of other nations."[/SIZE][/FONT]
2005-11-06 14:53 | User Profile
I still don't believe that it was "weakness" for Chirac and other leaders to reject getting involved in Bush's Iraq War.
As for the rioting Muslims, at least it's happening now while the Muslim are still a clear minority in all of those European countries. The Whites must awaken now and seize the moment.
2005-11-06 15:06 | User Profile
[quote=xmetalhead]I still don't believe that it was "weakness" for Chirac and other leaders to reject getting involved in Bush's Iraq War.
The problem with Steyn's analysis here is that Saddam is not a jihadist. In fact, Osama bin Laden put the man on his hit list. Overthrowing Saddam's government was part of no crusade. In fact, it has proven a big boon to global Islamic jihad.
A [I]real[/I] modern Crusade will first drive the Muslim hordes out of Europe, the ancestral homeland of Christianity.
2005-11-06 15:12 | User Profile
Steyn is simply trying to get Christians stirred up to do in the long term, Israel's dirty work, to make the Middle East their backyard. A proper approach would be to not only kick the Muslims out of Europe where they do not belong, but to send the Jews to Israel. Neither belongs in Europe, or for that matter, America. I don't ever recall Steyn writing anything that points out the threat of our version of "Muslims" here in America, the Mexican invasion. All those who are laughing at France better realize the same conditions exist here for what is going on in France. Jews and Muslims are the West's problems.
2005-11-06 15:18 | User Profile
[quote=Sertorius]Jews and Muslims are the West's problems.
I'll add to that the mostly gentile corporations which put profit ahead of genuine patriotism. Gentile greed has enabled Pharisee and Musselman alike to wreak havoc upon all our nations.
2005-11-06 15:20 | User Profile
Hamilton,
That is why I call them the Judeo-plutocracy. It takes into account corrupt Gentiles. Remove the Jews from the equation and you only have half the problem.
2005-11-06 15:27 | User Profile
Sert, you've got it right. The FOX News crowd might be laughing at France right now, but they've got another thing coming. The only reason there's no non-White riots yet in America is that Whites have totally given up any thoughts of defending what's rightfully theirs. However that FOX crowd will soon learn that you can't run away forever, and then we'll see if they put their balls on to match the bravado in their mouths.
The neocon writer of this article is completely disingeneous. I'll be praying that France leads the way for a new nationalism.
2005-11-06 15:33 | User Profile
Imagine the situation if Israel had never been founded. The Jews would have no beef with Islam, and they would be propagandizing [I]for [/I]them, which they do almost by reflex anyway, but that is going to end because of their racial interests in Israel. The Jews have normally taken the side of Islam against the West. We are fortunate the Jews made their shitty little land grab.
2005-11-06 15:35 | User Profile
Bardamu,
Too bad they couldn't have made their land grab in Africa where it wouldn't matter. I keep thinking about the old saw about the US not having enemies in the Middle East prior to the founding of Israel.
2005-11-06 15:37 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]I'll be praying that France leads the way for a new nationalism.[/QUOTE]
If the French can do it, then we all can do it. But don't hold your breath. The French are divided amongst themselves. The first thing they have to conquer is one another, then they can throw out the invader.
2005-11-06 15:38 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Bardamu,
Too bad they couldn't have made their land grab in Africa where it wouldn't matter. I keep thinking about the old saw about the US not having enemies in the Middle East prior to the founding of Israel.[/QUOTE]
Enemies or friends in the Middle East would not change anything so far as the invasion of Europe goes.
2005-11-06 15:41 | User Profile
No, what I mean is totally separate from the issue of Europe. I mean we wouldn't find ourselves involved in a fight between these two. It doesn't mean we let Muslims immigrate to our countries.
2005-11-06 15:49 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]No, what I mean is totally separate from the issue of Europe. I mean we wouldn't find ourselves involved in a fight between these two. It doesn't mean we let Muslims immigrate to our countries.[/QUOTE]
Well, what I'm saying and I know this is bad because in war innocent people die and there really is never a good excuse for that, but the war in the Middle East actually serves the interests of the White and European nationalisms because it sets the mood: violent, militant confrontation and, because of Israel, the Jews are neutralized if not turned into active allies. If not for Israel, the Jews would be actively engaged against us, as we find them with the Hispanic invasion.
2005-11-06 15:54 | User Profile
[quote=Bardamu]Well, what I'm saying and I know this is bad because in war innocent people die and there really is never a good excuse for that, but the war in the Middle East actually serves the interests of the White and European nationalisms because it sets the mood: violent, militant confrontation and, because of Israel, the Jews are neutralized if not turned into active allies. If not for Israel, the Jews would be actively engaged against us, as we find them with the Hispanic invasion.
That's true. Initially it serves the interests of jihad, but a mighty crusade is surely building up in response.
2005-11-06 16:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hamilton]That's true. Initially it serves the interests of jihad, but a mighty crusade is surely building up in response.[/QUOTE]
Either that or a bunch of street punks are going to conquer France. Lord, talk about the mouse that roared.
2005-11-06 17:23 | User Profile
[quote=Bardamu]Either that or a bunch of street punks are going to conquer France. Lord, talk about the mouse that roared.
The French will win.
Some stereotypes are based upon experience. Some are based upon spurious propaganda. The stereotype that the French are especially cowardly is an example of the latter.
2005-11-06 17:25 | User Profile
[quote=Sertorius]Hamilton,
That is why I call them the Judeo-plutocracy. It takes into account corrupt Gentiles. Remove the Jews from the equation and you only have half the problem. Yes. France doesn't have that many Jews as it is. No Jews in France, and it would still have these problems.
2005-11-06 17:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hamilton]The French will win.
Some stereotypes are based upon experience. Some are based upon spurious propaganda. The stereotype that the French are especially cowardly is an example of the latter.[/QUOTE]
I wasn't referring to that stereotype. I don't buy into it and never have. I'm pro Vichy anyway, so why would I care that they didn't fight to the death against the Wehrmacht. Not this cowboy. :smile: What I'm talking about is the paralysis resulting from cultural Marxism and multiculturalism. We have the same problem here of course, but I would say, now here's a stereotype, that that famous French love of the good life acts as a deterent to engage, or even recognize, the enemy. At least in America the rednecks will take care of business if given half a chance.
2005-11-06 17:42 | User Profile
With all due respect to the religious members of this board but.........forget the prayers and give me a gun, remember the old saying? "God help those who help themselves"
2005-11-06 19:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]Dear God, yes. For my part, I will be offering fervent prayers during the Liturgy today for the great peoples of Europe (both on the Continent and in their daughter countries) to finally, finally begin to awaken from their self-loathing, death-worshipping, autogenocidal stupor. It's high time for the Moors to be expelled again.[/QUOTE]
In this spirit, today is All Saints Sunday. Following are the words to one hymn we sang this morning:
For All the Saints
For all the saints who from their labors rest, All who by faith before the world confessed Your name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!
You were their rock, their fortress and their might, You, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; You, in the darkness drear, their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Oh, may Your soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old And win with them the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia! Alleluia!
The golden evening brightens in the west, Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest; Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!
From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the count-less host, Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Alleluia! Alleluia!
In Remembrance of the Faithful Departed Onward Christian Soldiers!
2005-11-07 00:06 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Wonder what the heck is going on in Paris, with all the rioting? Skip the bigots and read lenin.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P2491[/url] ========== Wonder how these folks can be so ignorant of history?
2005-11-07 00:26 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]I still don't believe that it was "weakness" for Chirac and other leaders to reject getting involved in Bush's Iraq War.
As for the rioting Muslims, at least it's happening now while the Muslim are still a clear minority in all of those European countries. The Whites must awaken now and seize the moment.[/QUOTE]
seize the moment and do what?
2005-11-07 01:10 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Bardamu] At least in America the rednecks will take care of business if given half a chance.[/QUOTE]
That reminds me of a joke about how if anyone invaded the U.S. they would be met at the shore by a bunch of guys in pickup trucks, who ten minutes later would leave the beach littered with shotgun shells and empty beer cans. Then they would go home.
2005-11-07 01:31 | User Profile
[QUOTE=BaconEggCheese]seize the moment and do what?[/QUOTE]
Round them ALL up and ... give them back to Qaddafi. And if he doesn't like it bomb him. Then we can have WW3 while we are still strong. :osama:
2005-11-07 13:36 | User Profile
Correct, Bardamu!
The Muslim filth must be expelled from the White West. Period.
However, I support the rights of self-determination of the Muslim in his own lands without the heavy-handed interference and invasion by Western nations such as the United States. The grievances of the Palestinians must be addressed as well or there will never, ever be peace in this world.
2005-11-07 14:14 | User Profile
God bless you Tex! The Church Militant will be triumphant! We in our Catholic choir were belting out that hymn too! Aux armes citoyens ! Formez vos bataillons ! [img]http://ledoigt.free.fr/images/marianne%207.jpg[/img] Marchons, marchons Qu'un sang impur Abreuve nos sillons !
St. Michael Archangel, defend us in the day of battle, Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou O prince of the heavenly host, By the power of God, Thrust down to hell, Satan and all evil spirits who prowl through the world, Seeking the ruin of souls. [img]http://www.viarosa.com/VR/Angels/StMichael_img.jpg[/img] Jamais arriere! motto of Clan Douglas [img]http://lonestartimes.com/images/Braveheart.2_1.gif[/img]
2005-11-07 15:49 | User Profile
It's so frustrating, because the conflict was so obvious to anybody with eyes to see. Most of us here have been warning of this for years, but nobody listens.
Enoch Powell was a prophet.
But I've come to the conclusion that our inaction is just inherent in the way white societies function. We won't do anything about it until we're forced to confront the issue head-on, and until that time all we can do is prepare.
If it's "not time" then nothing we can do will make it happen, and if it's "time" then there's nothing we or anybody else could do to stop it.
I personally think that it wouldn't take much for the sort of social chain reaction we've all been waiting for to happen. In particular, we need a sharp economic downturn to set the snowball rolling down the mountain.
My guess is that, unaccompanied by a serious economic downturn, this slow burn will continue for a long time. The transnationals and their henchmen in the various governments will continue pushing the line that these rioters are just as French (of Danish, or English) as natives, and that it's really all whitey's fault anyway. And the sheeple will continue to bleat their approval of their own dispossession long after their car and condo has been torched.
That is, until they start losing their jobs and retirement benefits as the powers that be seek to mollify the Muslims via massive wealth transfers from whitey. Then there will be a sort of chain reaction.
I hope I'm wrong and that this will mark a sea change in European attitudes without this going any further. The sooner we can break out of our denial, the more violence we will avoid, for both sides. I'm rather pessimistic about that, though. I suspect that we're not getting through this without a lot of pain.
2005-11-07 16:06 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]In this spirit, today is All Saints Sunday. Following are the words to one hymn we sang this morning:
For All the Saints[/QUOTE]
That's Vaughn Williams, isn't it?
I love Vaughn Williams. I listen to the Oxford Choir's rendition of his hymnal while I work.
2005-11-07 16:28 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis]That's Vaughn Williams, isn't it?[/QUOTE]
I believe the music is Williams, but the words were penned by [url=http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc05/htm/v.ix.iii.htm]William Walsham How[/url].
Another one by How, lest we forget why we fight:
*England's Pure Homes
‘The unclean worm hath eaten to the core, And killed the bud of Purity's white flower:’ So spake the scorner, presaging the hour When England's sweet home life would be no more. Yet many a home there lies in memory's store,— The rustic cot, the hall of ample dower,— Where no unholy thing dare lurk and cower, And lily-graces all their fragrance pour. Ah, happy homes! where chivalry disdains To wrong the weak, and manly strength is pure, And womanhood, made rich with freedom's gains, On mercy's gracious errands walks secure! Bright gardens, where God's fairest flowers are set, The sunlight of His smile is on you yet! (1885.)*
2005-11-07 18:41 | User Profile
by the way anyone who uses the podcasts or winamp and can subscribe to podcast the [URL="http://www.catholicinsider.com/scripts/index.php"]Catholic Insider[/URL] has a bit on the rioting in Paris. It's in the Nov 7th Daily Breakfast.
[URL="http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm"]http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm[/URL] [B][B][B] Three youths arrested in France for inciting riots on their websites Mon Nov 07 2005 10:12:39 ET
Three teenage boys have been arrested in France for inciting violence by using their websites to urge others to join the rioting that is raging in the country, Justice Minister Pascal Clement told a media conference Monday.
The three, all aged 16 and living in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence, "called for riots and an attack on police stations," Clement said.
Their websites were hosted by a site owned by a youth radio station, Skyrock.
Police have said that those responsible for the unrest that has rocked France since October 27 have become increasingly organised, using mobile telephones to monitor police movements and text messaging and the Internet to communicate their plans.
Developing... [/B][/B][/B]