Saving Paris From Islam

Beyond Radical Secularism by Pierre Manent

Barton Swain has a review of Pierre Manent's book Beyond Radical Secularism in The Wall Street Journal today (if you can't read it there, you can read a stolen copy here). Here's an excerpt:

The only humane, enlightened way to deal with the Muslim presence in France, then, is to acknowledge France’s Catholic Christian character. France’s Catholic Church, he thinks, will need to assert itself as a “mediator” between Muslims and non-Muslims, with a view to admitting Muslims into a civic life defined by some common practices and a common good. Evidently some, at least, of the most radical Islamists already think of the Catholic Church as somehow representative of French society—the young militants Nabil Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, remember, did not choose a university professor or a journalist or even a politician to murder but an 85-year-old priest, Father Jacques Hamel.

It's pretty great. I recommend it to your attention.