Salut Inclusivity!

The Muslims in France are worried, or so we are told; they don't feel included. According to a CNN article, the Muslims in France feel that they are being scapegoated for France's economic woes.

Now, it's pretty obvious that France's economic problems are not really the result of the actions of its Muslim residents, or any other minority group. Since World War II, France has embarked on a leftist course, regularly electing socialist and left-of-center leaders. French leaders, following enlightened socialist thought, always increased the role and size of government, expanded citizen dependency, burdened business, shrunk private capital- and borrowed to make up "revenue shortfalls," timorously at first, and then in increasing amounts as a regular practice of budgeting.  They've simply run out of other people's money.

The real problem that the Muslim community is facing is that they are being asked to give up their religious identity. According to one Louisa Zanoun, who appears to be sympathetic to the plight of these poor Muslims, the Muslims are finding it hard to integrate into French culture. That shouldn't be surprising; French culture since the revolution has been secular, and groups with religious identity have, to say the least, not been particularly well accepted.

Ms. Zanoun says, "Originally, it was supposed to be inclusive. It was about including all the people who believed in the values of the Republic. Nowadays, it's very exclusive because to belong to the Republic, you have to give up your religion." Inclusive should be captialized here, because this is the definitive example of the liberal version of Inclusion. Read that quote more carefully. Ms. Zanoun says that "inclusive" meant including only the people group that held the values of the Republic. Salut Inclusivity! Anyone but a liberal would recognize that as the very definition of exclusivity. It's worth repeating; to be included in the secular Republic by definition meant that a citizen necessarily gave up values other than those of the Republic.

It is not a corruption of the ideals and values of the Republic to require Muslims to suppress the public expression of their religious beliefs. Rather, it is a tenet of liberal secularism. In America, liberals have to be cautious of overt attacks on religion, framing them with at least a specious argument that the purpose of a regulation or law is not to infringe believers' First Amendment rights. France, on the other hand, has no real limitations in that regard, and the French Muslims find themselves caught between the exclusivist nature of Islam and the exclusivist nature of secularism.