Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stoneberry.
Well, the high point of Pope Leo's four-day visit to France was the celebration of Mass on September the 26 at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The crowd numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and some saw in the gathering a hopeful sign of a revival of interest, perhaps in Christianity, particularly among young people. At the same time, however, trouble was brewing in the nation. Over a week before, teachers at a secondary school in Paris went on strike. Over staffing shortages and building conditions, students joined the teachers, setting up blockades with trash cans.
Suburbs, including the majority Muslim Saint Denis neighborhood, joined in the blockades, and the protests turned violent on September the 23rd. Firework mortars were fired into the school, causing injuries and leading to arrest. And quickly, protests spread to other cities throughout France. Rioters engaged in vandalism and arson, throwing paving stones, bottles, and acid at police. The police responded with batons, tear gas, and more arrests.
By early October, officials had reported that 24 schools had been burned or ransacked. And then, on October 17th, according to estimates from the French Interior Ministry, about half a million people participated in mass demonstrations across France. And as the day wore on, those demonstrations also turned violent. Limoges city hall and the tourist office in Lyon were among the Government buildings that were burned to the ground throughout the country, police cars and private vehicles were torched, and there was widespread looting of supermarkets, electronic stores, luxury boutiques, and private homes. Nearly a thousand police officers and firemen were injured, some seriously, and there were also injuries and one death among the rioters.
Copycat riots and looting then broke out elsewhere across Europe, including in Milan, Bologna, Brussels, and Liège, Belgium. American media The outlets initially portrayed the protesters as students and union workers, but after October the 17th, the French government shifted the blame to the ultra left. Conspicuously absent in all this has been the mention of immigrants or first- or second-generation French citizens from former French colonies, most of which are overwhelmingly Muslim. But videos show rioters waving Algerian and Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyas, and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. Synagogues were attacked.
Jewish businesses were targeted. A Muslim student was caught on video calling his fellow students to kill the police in the name of Allah.
So, though the government has chosen to put all the blame on the far left, Islam seems to be playing a central role in the rioting as well. Of course, there's a connection between the far left and Islam in encouraging protest and justifying violence. It's no accident that immigrants from Muslim countries tend to skew heavily toward the growing La France Insoumise, the radical left party that initially condemned. The rioting and non-political vandalism of October 17th, while blaming all the violence on the government, French conservative commentators and even some socialists refer to this connection as Islamo-Gauchism or the Islamic leftism. The left provides polemical language like anti-racism, decolonization, and social justice, and Islamists provide a disciplined constituency and street mobilization, unified around the Palestinian cause.
All of this can be seen in varying degrees throughout Europe, and this alliance is similar to the one that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Iran in 1979. Though immediately afterward, the Islamic regime arrested and executed their leftist supporters. And of the many factors that brought France to this terrible moment, one of the most important is the impact of secularism. When the role of religion in society is attacked, undermined, and replaced, people are left with. Without a deeper purpose for life, and something that important can never be replaced, especially with nothing.
France, Europe, and all of Western civilization is now at a crossroad. Unless there's a recovery of transcendent meaning and morality, only two choices remain on the table. The Pope's visit offered an outward expression of Christianity, tradition, a reminder of the values that formed Europe in the first place. But on the other hand, the alliance of radical leftism and Islamists will destroy a society, even if for conflicting reasons, as Osgenis and others described so clearly in the documentary *Truth Rising*, civilizations. Have been detached from what animated them, face a choice.
They either must be renewed, or they're destined for collapse. For the Coulson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download podcasts.
And for more resources to share this commentary with others, visit us at Breakpoint.org. Breakpoint listeners in Colorado, we're excited to invite you to join us for an event at Colorado Christian University with Dr. Christopher Watkins on Remaining Human in the AI Age on Monday, November 16th at 7 p.m. AI promises remarkable opportunities, but with them comes the risk of misshaping what it means to be human. Human beings are made in the image of God, endowed with a dignity we receive rather than manufacture.
Dr. Watkins will help us consider what this vision means for our use of AI, our relationships, our work, and worship, and for the challenge of remaining fully human in an age increasingly shaped by AI. Join us November 16th at 7 p.m. at Colorado Christian University. Register for free at ColsonCenter.org/Colorado.
That's ColsonCenter. org/slash Colorado.
