(Yeah, it was morning when I drafted this; afternoon now, after grocery-shopping and other errands.)
1. Remember how you felt the day after 9/11? My oldest, then my only, was then 15 months old, so we didn’t feel the need to shelter him from words and images he wouldn’t comprehend, and we had the TV running constantly after getting home from work. It was eerie, too, with the lack of airplanes (and we’re in O’Hare’s flight path, so it was noticable). Last night, on twitter and the news, this was said to be France’s 9/11 — though it seems to me the same thing was said at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
2. What will the response be? France has declared “war” but will they go into Syria? Or will they engage in their war via an enhanced effort to pursue terror cells on French territory? Or — sorry, but I’ve got to say it: will this be another Sitzkrieg?
3. Already the anti-anti-Muslim backlash (can you call it that) has started, the protestations all over twitter, at least, that this attack had nothing to do with Islam. Now, part of this is just semantic quibbles: how do you define “Islam”, and who has the authority to decide? But whether we deny or accept ISIS as Islamic matters. If we say, they’re just militants who happen to come from an Islamic tradition, just because of the coincidence that the Middle East happens to be Islamic, that leads us down the wrong path, towards a notion that ISIS came from the poverty of the Middle East, or resentment over European colonialism or neo-colonialism or interference in Middle Eastern affairs. It allows us to imagine that all we need to is lift the downtrodden up out of poverty, and perhaps promises us that if we stay out of the way in the Middle East, we’ll escape their wrath. But it is, often, wealthy Muslims who are drawn to ISIS and terrorism, and they are driven by ideology, and that ideology is rooted in Islam, and Muslims are joining up because they see it as the highest expression of their Islamic beliefs. It makes no more sense to ignore this than it would have to say of the Nazis, after they’d marched into the Sudetenland, “we need to look at the root causes because it has nothing to do with a drive to conquest.”
4. What is the target? Is Berlin up next? London? New York? Or is this just France, just Paris, being made to suffer repeatedly for Charlie Hebdo or for the resentment that Muslims in France feel. (In any case, the pounding of France certainly says that this isn’t about resentment over Western military action in Iraq.) And if we decide it’s the latter, and that we in the U.S. aren’t at risk, will France be alone in fighting this?
5. What about the refugees? Defenders are saying, “why should we worry about refugees doing this when this is what they’re fleeing?” but only a small proportion are actually fleeing ISIS. Others are fleeing Assad, or just getting the heck out of a war zone generally, and many, many more are coming from places other than Syria or Iraq, where there is no active war, only poverty and/or a repressive government, and there is no reason to believe that they are believers in Western democracy, simply because they want a share of its wealth. There are likely to be ISIS infiltrators, and there are likely to be traditionalist Muslims who believe Islam should dominate the West, and there are likely to be even others radicalized when their trip to Europe doesn’t produce the immediate prosperity they expect. Already one hears reports of resentment among asylum-claimants sent to small towns and old army barracks, rather than being given a monthly benefit and the ability to settle in an apartment of their own, wherever they please, and one hears reports of violence within the asylum-claimants’ centers, and on the streets of German towns.
6. Will the French affected by this attack, and Europeans worried about ISIS, militant Islam, and the breakneck pace of the flow of Muslims into Europe, turn to religion, or will they perceive the “opposite” of Islam, and the “endangered tradition” of France and Europe, to be secularism?
7. Whatever else this is, the events of this week are a reminder that wealth (that is, the comparative wealth of middle-class 21st century France, or America) does not guarantee safety and protection — whether it’s an attack such as this; or the death even of the young or middle-aged; or the need to cope with aging parents who will not (yes, I know, really, cannot) listen to reason on the need to change how they live their lives, for their own well-being.
So that’s where we are on what ought to be a beautiful November afternoon, well-suited for leaf-raking or a nice walk, mild and sunny, but none too cheery even so.
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