In France, retaliation have unfolded with civil unrest striking back with attacks on three mosques. In another French city, a homemade bomb exploded in the vicinity of a mosque which destroyed the facade of a church. In Montrouge a police officer was killed by an unknown assailant. The terror attacks in France are warning that the downturn in the economy of Europe is kindling the old tensions between Muslims and Christian/Jews. This is precisely on point with our model warning about civil unrest. Muslims are often still living segregated in France and are not truly integrated within society. The French previously wanted to outlaw women from hiding their identity with veils known as the “Hijab”. From the Muslin perspective, it is a matter of interpretation as to which sect believes woman must be covered. In the Qur’an, Allah tells the believers to “lower their gaze and be modest.” It is a matter of interpretation. Specifically, the Qur’an says: “Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their chests and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers…” [continuing list of family members and others in front of whom women are exempt from covering] (Qur’an 24:30-31).
The problem with the Burqa comes when the identity of the individual is completely hidden from a security perspective these days that someone can hide bombs or whatever. In this new world where we all are losing our privacy, this customs begins to clash with this new age of government must know everything. The “Hijab” also distinguishes Muslims and therein maintains the lack of integration. The USA became the melting pot because everyone coming from various countries had to speak English to gain employment. Today, ask an American what are you, they respond half Irish and Italian or whatever. That does not happen in Europe so easily.
There are plenty of “moderate” Muslim’s whose women do not wear any veils or Burqas and they have made the transition by integration. The same can be said of the Jewish community distinguished between the Hasidic community and the majority of the Jewish community. The Hasidic Jews dress in black and thus remain identifiable within society rather than integrated.
The Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch) are a cultural group that was formed by early German-speaking immigrants to Pennsylvania and their descendants. This early wave of settlers, which would eventually coalesce to form the Pennsylvania Dutch, began in the late 17th century and concluded in the late 18th century. They too retain their culture and remain totally segregated from society. They reject everything modern from cars to electricity. In this case, they cannot even live in ghettos within modern cities.
The danger enters when the economy turns down. This festers tension between one group that distinguishes itself from others. Riots and civil wars have brewed within Christianity between “Papists” (Catholics) as they became known and Protestants. This plagued Britain and fueled it civil war resulting in the beheading of the Catholic King Charles I.
Consequently, the Paris attacks are very serious. It is the fuel that feeds the flames of civil unrest whenever one group segregated from another. It does not matter what the distinction might be if it is race or religion. In China it was the Boxer Rebellion that was the wholesale killing of Westerners. In Singapore there are rising tensions that are anti-foreigners. We have anti-German feelings rising in Greece and anti-foreign tensions starting in Germany.
Civil Unrest is part of human nature. We all get along when the economy is doing well. Turn it down and what emerges in the rise in tensions between one group and another.
