Tyranny of the Minority

Saturday, January 10th, 2015

Theodore Dalrymple discusses the potential tyranny of the minority in France:

The shots in the Paris street that were seen and heard around the world killed Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim policeman going to the defense of Charlie Hebdo: a reminder that by no means all Muslims in France, far from it, are France-hating, Allahu-akbar-shouting fanatics, and that many are well-integrated. I go to a Muslim boulanger in Paris whose French bread and pastries are as good as any in the vicinity; and, if anything, I have a prejudice in favor of patronizing his shop precisely to encourage and reward his successful integration. And he is only one of many cases that I know.

Unfortunately, this is not as reassuring as it sounds, because a handful of fanatics can easily have a much more significant social effect than a large number of peaceful citizens. There is more to fear in one terrorist than to celebrate in 99 well-integrated immigrants. And if only 1 percent of French Muslims were inclined to terrorism, this would still be more than 50,000 people, more than enough to create havoc in a society. The jihadists now have a large pool from which to draw, and there are good reasons to think that more than 1 percent of young Muslims in France are distinctly anti-French. The number of young French jihadists fighting in Syria is estimated to be 1,200, equal to 1 percent in numbers of the French army, and probably not many fewer than the number of Algerian guerrillas fighting during much of the Algerian War of Independence.

Comments

  1. FNN says:

    Wikipedia says that in 1961 (the year before the French fled) pro-French Algerian Muslim forces outnumbered the FLN by over 4:1.

  2. Bert E. says:

    Even if not one person is killed by a “militant” in France the “minority” with their constant demands makes a nuisance of themselves that is tolerated in return for what exactly? It seems that no matter how much the host society acquiesces to the demands of the few it never seems to be enough.

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