2023-07-02
Mahyar Tousi reminds us that the current troubles in France may not be unrelated by some to the concept of the religious wars of old.
That's not to say that they are or that they are not, just that it is likely that some will see it that way.
From my perspective, a conversion achieved by force is not a conversion at all, it is a subjugation.
Force is an open admission that persuasion doesn't work.
Those who seek to convert and spread their religion by coercion rather than by persuasion do not respect the right of anybody to make up their own minds for themselves, and the result is top-down control. It is the direct antithesis of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
OK, so a true bottom-up government of the people has yet to be established anywhere, but the principles established in Magna Carta and the American Constitution probably go some way toward laying a workable foundation.
France is not alone in having a large immigrant population - following the Barcelona Declaration of 1995, there has been considerable migration from North Africa and elsewhere into Europe (including the UK), with some thinking that the wording of the Declaration is simply political cover for the deliberate control-free immigration of incompatible cultures (more on the UK attitude to the Declaration here) and judging by the UK's resolute admission of ever-increasing numbers of immigrants legal and illegal, they may have a point.
The UK is not France and our record of peaceful assimilation of immigrants is - despite government interventions and some infamous incidents - just that, largely peaceful. Despite concerning undercurrents. But complacency is rarely advisable.
The future is still open, and we must support the majority on all sides who value peaceful cooperation and coexistence above coercion.
Sometimes an obvious truth needs to be restated: working together we are stronger than we can ever become by fighting against each other.
(5 minutes)
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