(own photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>(Yeah, it was morning when I drafted this; afternoon now, after grocery-shopping and other errands.)<\/p>\n
1. \u00a0Remember how you felt the day after 9\/11? \u00a0My oldest, then my only, was then 15 months old, so we didn\u2019t feel the need to shelter him from words and images he wouldn\u2019t comprehend, and we had the TV running constantly after getting home from work. \u00a0It was eerie, too, with the lack of airplanes (and we\u2019re in O\u2019Hare\u2019s flight path, so it was noticable). \u00a0 \u00a0Last night, on twitter and the news, this was said to be France\u2019s 9\/11 \u2014 though it seems to me the same thing was said at the time of\u00a0the Charlie Hebdo attack.<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0What will the response be? \u00a0France has declared \u201cwar\u201d but will they go into Syria? \u00a0Or will they engage in their war via an enhanced effort to pursue terror cells on French territory? \u00a0Or \u2014 sorry, but I\u2019ve got to say it: \u00a0will this be another Sitzkrieg?<\/p>\n
3. \u00a0Already 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. \u00a0Now, part of this is just semantic quibbles: \u00a0how do you define \u201cIslam\u201d, and who has the authority to decide? \u00a0But whether we deny or accept ISIS as Islamic matters. \u00a0If we say, they\u2019re 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. \u00a0It 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\u2019ll escape their wrath. \u00a0But it\u00a0is, 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\u00a0of their Islamic beliefs. \u00a0It makes no more sense to ignore this than it would have to say of the Nazis, after they\u2019d marched into the Sudetenland, \u201cwe need to look at the root causes because it has nothing to do with a drive to conquest.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. \u00a0What is the target? \u00a0Is Berlin up next? \u00a0London? \u00a0New York? \u00a0Or is this just France, just Paris, being made to suffer repeatedly for Charlie Hebdo or for the resentment that Muslims in France feel. \u00a0(In any case, the pounding of France certainly says that this isn\u2019t about resentment over Western military action in Iraq.) \u00a0And if we decide it\u2019s the latter, and that we in the U.S. aren\u2019t at risk, will France be alone in fighting this?<\/p>\n
5. \u00a0What about the refugees? \u00a0Defenders are saying, \u201cwhy should we worry about\u00a0refugees doing this when this is what they\u2019re fleeing?\u201d but only a small proportion are actually fleeing ISIS. \u00a0Others 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. \u00a0There 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\u2019t produce the immediate prosperity they expect. \u00a0Already 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\u00a0asylum-claimants\u2019 centers, and on the streets of German towns.<\/p>\n
6. \u00a0Will 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 \u201copposite\u201d of Islam, and the \u201cendangered tradition\u201d of France and Europe, to be secularism?<\/p>\n
7. \u00a0Whatever else this is, the events of this week are\u00a0a reminder that wealth (that is, the comparative wealth of middle-class 21st century France, or America) does not guarantee safety and protection \u2014 whether it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Yeah, it was morning when I drafted this; afternoon now, after grocery-shopping and other errands.) 1. \u00a0Remember how you felt the day after 9\/11? \u00a0My oldest, then my only, was then 15 months old, so we didn\u2019t feel the need to shelter him from words and images he wouldn\u2019t comprehend, and we had the TV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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