In an appearance at the French National Assembly, Minister of the Interior Gerard Darmanin insisted that “only 10%” of the rioters were “foreign,” while 90% were “French citizens.” That may be true, but those 90% were French citizens only on their identity cards. By their mental makeup, they were still the Muslim migrants whom their fathers and grandfathers had been. They still refused, as citizens, to integrate into French society, still tried to milk the French welfare state of every conceivable benefit – free housing, free medical care, free education, unemployment benefits, family allowances, and more – that it offered. They still saw the world through the lens of Islam. French citizenship did not change their view that, as Muslims, they were the “best of peoples” and the French non-Muslims who had welcomed them into their midst and provided such largesse remained, as Infidels, “the most vile of created beings.”
More on the response to Darmanin’s claim can be found here: “French riots: Top politician says ‘of course there is a link between immigration’ and devastating riots across France,” by John Cody, Remix News, July 5, 2023:
In a video that has garnered over 1.5 million views on Twitter alone, the leader of the Les Republicans senate group, Bruno Retailleau, said that it is clear that immigrants, including second- and third-generation people with an immigration background, were responsible for the rioting that caused widespread destruction across the country.
“I heard that (French Interior Minister) Gerard Darmanin, yesterday at the National Assembly, said there is no link between these events and immigration. Of course there is… I’ve asked many mayors. They all tell you that it’s precisely in the neighborhoods where there are migratory [migrant] ghettos. Certainly, they are French, but they are French in their official identity, and, unfortunately, for the second, third generation (of immigrants), there’s a kind of regression back towards their ethnic origins,” said Bruno Retailleau in an interview with FranceInfo.
The first generation of Muslim immigrants are actually more willing to try to fit in, so grateful are they for what the French state provides, than those who come after. It is the second and third generations of Muslim migrants, secure in their French citizenship, who become more hostile to the French, religiously more devout, less willing to try to integrate with non-Muslims. Bruno Retailleau was simply pointing out what everyone knows but few dare say: that the rioters were almost entirely Muslims, and having been granted French citizenship made no difference in their behavior.
The remark came after French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin stated on Monday that there was no connection between immigration and the riots in France, saying that 90 percent of those arrested were French citizens.
However, Retailleau countered the French interior minister’s claim, saying that these rioters may be French citizens, but they are also second- and third-generation migrants who have not integrated into French society, and they have presented a serious security problem.
Retailleau said he feared that politics will fail to address the root problems following the week-long riot that caused over €1 billion in damage.
“We know the causes. And I want to reiterate them. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the government is tempted by the politics of failure. Once more, the French, the silent majority do not understand that there is a cold anger that is rising in the country. Because it is a double punishment for the French, because they paid into the neighborhoods, and now they have to rebuild because the savages burned them down.”
Everyone — except the demented politicians on the far-left, in the party La France Insoumise, led by the quasi-communist Jean-Luc Melenchon – knows that the Muslims alone were responsible for the riots. And the French, knowing how much their government has spent – tens of billions of euros – on the Muslims, whether citizens or not – are now enraged that after more than one billion euros worth of destruction by the Muslims, it is they, the indigenous French, who will have to rebuild the very structures, replace the cars and businesses, restock the shops, that the Muslims vandalized, pillaged, and burned down.
He points out that there are also issues in the schools, and the justice system’s response to these perpetrators, especially those who are arrested as minors, is “inadequate.”
Retailleau knows that the insubordination of Muslim students in the schools continues unpunished. The teachers are afraid of them; they don’t dare touch on certain subjects, such as freedom of expression, or any discussion of Islam, lest they end up like Samuel Paty. The Muslim students refuse, for example, to study certain subjects, such as the French monarchy, the Crusades, and the two world wars, for they are indifferent to French history – it has nothing to do with them, even if they are French citizens – and are especially unwilling to learn about subjects, such as the Dreyfus Affair and, above all, about the Holocaust, that would naturally cause sympathy for the hated Jews.
Retailleau also noted that the idea to hate France came from the French themselves, stating: “I think we share some of the responsibility. We simply don’t believe in France ourselves, and we’ve often presented France as an anti-model, a counter-example. How can you make young people from immigrant backgrounds love France if you say that France is detestable?”
It is certainly true that all over the Western world, there is a failure of self-confidence, a crazed belief that we in the advanced world have done great historical wrongs – slavery, colonialism, imperialism – and thus owe “the others” something, and at the head of the list of those “others” are the Muslims.
The left was quick to accuse Retailleau of racism after his remarks.
“This is a racist remark,” stated Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of the far-left party La France Insoumise.
One more time: Islam is not a race. Muslims are not a race. Islam is an ideology, one that is murderously hostile to non-Muslims. We see the dismal results everywhere that Muslims rule, and make life hell for Infidels who live in their countries. Con sider the treatment of the Copts in Egypt, the Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq, the Christians in Nigeria, and the Christians and Hindus in Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Communist Party MP Elsa Faucillon wrote on Twitter: that this is a “racialist thesis par excellence. The right is slipping a little more every day.”
The week-long riot produced 3,000 arrests, hundreds of wounded police officers, thousands of arson attacks, and historic landmarks, including the famed Alcazar Library [in Maraseille], nearly burned to the ground. In one case, a flaming vehicle was even sent into a mayor’s home, nearly killing his family.
Right-leaning and conservative parties have pointed out that very few ethnic French people have participated in the riots, and for the most part, those who have are migrants or the children or grandchildren of foreigners.
It is not the presence or absence of citizenship that defines the rioters, but the presence or absence of Islam. Retailleau dares to suggest this, and for that, the leftists of both La France Insoumise, and of the Communist Party, choose to condemn him, preposterously, as a “racist” spreading a “racialist thesis.” More and more of the French, recently mugged nation-wide by the reality of Muslim mobs, are listening to Retailleau and the Republicans – the party of Marine Le Pen — with greater approval than they ever have before. More of the French are at last coming to their senses. Not a moment too soon.
Phil Copson says
“Everyone — except the demented politicians on the far-left, in the party La France Insoumise, led by the quasi-communist Jean-Luc Melenchon – knows that the Muslims alone were responsible for the riots.”
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“La France Insoumise” ? shouldn’t that be “La France Insouciant” ? or “La France En Demise” ?
Hoi Polloi says
As Tucker says, their every response is in essence, “Shut up you racist!”
Kenneth Johnson says
And 3000 prison sentences. Anojher drain on the taxpayer.l And the unwillingness to participate in school. this leaves me speechless. KEN
Fitna says
Great article Hugh, I really hope you’re right that the French are coming to their sense. Many people have trouble being objective and dispassionate nowadays when they consider any topic, esp. one involving race or religion. Obviously they wrongly conflate the two, esp the religious people themselves who want to always carry the victim card while they wage war against our civilization.
I’m glad that mask is finally slipping. The masses need it hammered into their heads that Islam is just a belief system/ideology, like Nazism, Communism, Marxism, etc. So there is absolutely nothing ‘racist’ if you decide to hate Nazis or Communists. You’re not hating them for their skin or ethnicity, but the views they hold. There are evil beliefs, religions, ideologies that deserve to be hated for the harm they cause.
Once people understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hating Muslims for their hateful beliefs, and we get over PC, then we’ll make huge strides in dealing with their death cult. They best way is to correctly link Islam and Nazism, because they share many common traits like authoritarianism, hatred of Jews and people they consider inferior, hate of freedom/democracy, etc.
Hopefully the French realize Muslims are not worth all the money they spend on them…firstly through free money given in housing, welfare, healthcare, etc…then money they steal in crimes like fraud, theft, looting, then money paying for their lawyers and to keep them in jail, etc. The simplest and obvious solution is to send them back to their own nations they came from.
There are also daily occurrences on a massive scale of Muslim men harassing, stalking, terrorizing ordinary French girls on the streets. It’s a free-for-all, since they don’t have enough police to go after all of them. France is headed for either Islamification or civil war and certainly more destruction in the near term if nothing changes.
I’ve lost faith in Marine Le Pen, she’s no longer as opposed to Islam as she was in the past, because she changed her policies to become more acceptable to the masses, which means to hold views closer to Macron or the Left…but at the moment she has the best chance in polls to become the next PM…I’m hoping it’ll be Eric Zemmour, but still Le Pen would be better than the idiotic Left/Marcon.
Randal says
Yesterday I happened to engage in a conversation with a native Frenchman here in Chicago. He is here working in Chicago . When I asked him about the riots across France , he seemed strangely unconcerned with them. Downplayed the significance of them, and even indicated he was sympathetic to the “goals” of the rioters. When I told him the rioters were largely Muslims from immigrant backgrounds, he completely denied the truth of this. He claimed most of them were native French. When I pointed out that the French prison system is bursting at the seams with Muslim inmates, he denied that what I was saying was true. During this discussion, I was struck by his nonchalance about the whole business , and an almost self-conscious willingness to engage in this kind of sophistry. It was as if he knew the truth, but had to maintain the party line no matter the cost. And what is that party line? Is it just a “Marxist” world view? Sure. That is part of it. But it is the hatred of his own culture , and European culture in general that lies at it’s heart. And no doubt this attitude can be extrapolated writ large all over Western Europe, and of course, all over the Western world.This disturbing encounter reminded me of a similar encounter with a Dutchman at the time of the Van Gogh murder , and the forced exile of Ayana Hirsi Ali. Again, the native Dutchman was sympathetic to the terrorists , and even claimed that Ali was the real terrorist for having the nerve to raise objections to the Islamization of Holland! Crazy stuff, but I guess this is where we’re at.
One last post-script regarding this Frenchman. At the conclusion of our conversation, he mentioned that protest was in the French blood at any rate and referenced the French Revolution. I could have countered that the French revolutionaries eventually began to eat their own , and ultimately led to Napoleon and the later restoration of the monarchy, but there was no point in engaging in further discourse with him. He was beyond reason , and I fear there are tens of millions more like him not just in France but across the length and breadth of the Western world. Very disheartening.
Hoi Polloi says
It’s so fully inculcated in so many. I spoke to a well-read young man, American. He’s a product of Catholic schools, so his indifference, I assume, parallels that of the pope to the slaughter of Christians in Africa. He was taught that muslims revere Jesus and I had to explain what I’ve learned here about that untruth. He met one muslim of a persecuted sect who is more educated, and extrapolates that to all. He said that French police are known to be violent. I told him about the criminal record of the supposed victim and his endangerment of his police target. I asked him if it’s of no significance that the “rioting” destroyed the library in Marseille with its ancient manuscripts. All we can do is keep countering the ME money and its bought and paid for PR myths to whitewash islam. I commend your efforts because I know it’s slow going.
James Lincoln says
Randal,
I think that you have hit on it: the Frenchman was engaging in sophistry – and was beyond reasoning.
Mark Buckley says
I’m afraid not a surprising story. As you may know, the same situation exists here in America. We call people with attitudes like this Frenchman, Democrats.
Pray Hard says
Immigrant backgrounds. How cute is that? We’d have never guessed otherwise.
born saturday says
considering colonialism and imperialism, islam has been the worst in human history… infact the ottomaniac empire, during its expansion in the mediteranean, murdered an estimated from 100 to 300 milliom people from north africa, mainly africans and ancient egyptians, and settled the arabs that exist untill today…. the ottomaniac empire started the slave trade then, that the rest of the empires found convenient to follow…..
other genocides include greeks assyrians and armenians, where ever the ottomaniac empire got steady, no other people than turks and arabs survived…
the ottomaniac empire was in fact the most ruthless barbaric opressive and genocidal empire in written human history… with hundends of millions of victims to the barbarocity of islam…
this part of history though is well censored and distorted in ways as not to offend islam in most of modern history….
Hudders says
All well & good; but will any others in his position and perhaps highrer speak out too?
Or are they already under submission completely.
I think some polititions stick their heads in the proverbial sand & pretend things will eventually get better with muslims in their countries.
They are deluded. Things are about to get so much worse for real.
Hoi Polloi says
Or take bags of money and jewels, like Charles. There are numerous reports of the very wealthy building bunkers and keeping planes 24/7 ready.
Kepha says
I suspect that “immigrant background” did not include Chinese, Viet, Christian African, or Polish.