Indigenes

"I never saw an Arab or an African soldier in my history books", says 23-year-old Salima, a student from the Paris suburb of Seine-St-Denis. (1)

"Ultimately, [the] is a challenge as much for European societies as for European governments. Much of the discrimination in France, for example, is the result of decisions by individual employers, who are going against the grain of public policy and the law of the land. It's the personal attitudes and behavior of hundreds of millions of non-Muslim Europeans, in countless small, everyday interactions, that will determine whether their Muslim fellow citizens begin to feel at home in Europe or not. Together, of course, with the personal choices of millions of individual Muslims, and the example given by their spiritual and political leaders. Is it likely that Europeans will rise to this challenge? I fear not. Is it still possible? Yes." -- Timothy Garton Ash (2)


1. French film aims to unite nation, BBC online, 27 Sep http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5386356.stm

2. Islam in Europe, NYRB, 6 Sep http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19371