“Do something. We are terrified here.” That's the cry - a cri de coeur, really - of a Jew in today's France, a country that cannot seem to control its growing population of angry, violent, Zion-loathing Muslims. Marie Brenner examines the all-too-familiar phenomenon in the August Vanity Fair magazine. Describing a hate-fueled protest that took place in Paris last year, Brenner notes that the Judenhass/Zionhass persists despite efforts to curb it via censorship:
France’s endless demonstrations are a mainstay of the republic, a sacred right rooted in the legacy of Voltaire. But hate speech is a criminal offense - people may express their opinions, but not to the extent of insulting others based on their race, religion, or sex. The protest - against Israel’s Gaza policies - had been banned by the government, fearful of violence, following flare-ups in the preceding weeks. But if the police were to move in too quickly, the riots might continue all summer long - suburbs in flames, mobs in central Paris...You mean to say that criminalizing hate speech has not succeeded in deescalating the Zionhass? Are you telling me that local authorities, who seem to fear the testy Muslims every bit as much as the Jews do and maybe even more, are inclined to take the path of least resistance, allowing the angry ones to spew and vent in a violent way instead of wading into danger and actually endeavoring to enforce the law?
Does that sound familiar to you, Canadian Jews? If it doesn’t, I’m sorry to say that you haven’t been paying attention to what’s occurring on the ground, right before your eyes.
It's remarkable, isn't it, how quickly "liberté, égalité, fraternité" (or “peace, order and good government”) can evaporate when the population of testy Muslims reaches a critical mass? Alas, by the time that our Canadian immigration gate-keepers figure that out, the anguished cry of the Jew quoted in Brenner's article may well become all-too familiar in this country too - and in both official languages.
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