No, the Jews, who are so lonely today in French society, were not alone in the courtroom. But the Muslim families—these Muslims so much at the center of the national public debate today—were. No imam showed up in the courtroom. None of the left-wingers who are so eager to stand against “Islamophobia” and to point to the evils of racism and social discrimination wrote a single word of support to the Ibn Ziaten and Lagouen families.
Yet, the parallels between the French soldiers of Arab origins and their killer couldn’t have been more striking. All were from poor backgrounds. All, as the cops once more proved, had experienced discrimination and racism—not once, but probably hundreds of times. Some were the exact same age as their killer. But while Mohamed Merah dealt drugs and trained for killing in the Pakistani tribal zones, they enlisted in the French army and showed pride in wearing the French uniform. Indeed the question asked by Jacques Gauthier is worth asking again: Why them? What makes one choose this and the other choose that?
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