Terrorism in France is difficult to ignore and its treatment of immigrants doesn’t help
Jul 14, 2016, 6:09 PM | Updated: 10:59 pm
In this video grab taken Thursday July 14, 2016, ambulances and Police cars are seen after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers who’d gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice. officials and eyewitnesses described as a deliberate attack. There appeared to be many casualties. (BFMTV via AP)
(BFMTV via AP)
KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney is an extreme Francophile, even marrying his bride in Paris. He reflects, with the help of Don O’Neill, on the country he holds so dear after a truck attack leaves dozens of people dead in Nice.
Tom: This is clearly a deliberate act. Clearly something was going on when someone runs down 80 people, kills them, and then exchanges gunfire with police. This is clearly planned to coincide with the day that France celebrates its very nation.
Related: Obama condemns horrific attack in France
Don: When you’re in France, do you think more about terrorism than when you’re in the U.S.?
Tom: The last time I was in Paris was about a year ago. Around every tourist site they had three sets of two guys stationed with military style guns. You couldn’t help buy be aware of their presence — everywhere you went in Paris. This was probably within six months of the latest terrorist attack. They are on high alert in France because they have a much larger Muslim population. That is really a major issue. Muslims I think, make up about 2 percent of (the U.S.) population. In France, that number is over 10 percent and it’s a real concern.
Don: During WWII, many European countries were bombed all the time and people sort of became accustomed to it. Do you think, at some point, if these attacks continue that they’ll get used to it? Or will they stop going to things like Bastille Day?
Tom: That’s really hard to say. But I do want to pat ourselves on the back for doing a relatively good job of incorporating our immigrants into our populous. One of the problems in France is most of the immigrant population lives in the suburbs. There’s this real division. There’s not a sense of ethical outreach that I think we Americans feel. It’s a real issue that France has to deal with to be more successful. Right now there is an alienated population that surrounds Paris, for instance.
Don: That’s why you really need the Muslim population.
Tom: If the centerpiece of Islamic terrorism is in Islamic countries, we need those Islamic countries to be our allies to fight them. They are a minority in their own countries. We seem to have this sense that if you’re Muslim then you’re against us. That is absolutely not the case. It is a small radical minority of Muslims that need to be squashed in their own countries before they infiltrate ours.
SK
