"... why do you speak of tolerance in absolute terms? Tolerance is always conditional - any idealistic expression of freedom and liberty etc is always constrained by practical considerations - any country no matter how tolerant it imagines itself to be will embrace 'intolerance' if the predominant culture begins to feel threatened. I've lived extensively in Paris - 20 years ago there was no arrondissement I would have considered a no go zone - that's not true today - and 20 years from now? Would you call France foolishly intolerant for, as any open society does, placing specific limitations on immigration to protect the integrity of a status quo? Conversely, would you consider France a shining example of enlightened tolerance if it just threw open its doors and said come one, come all and once you're here do what ever you want?
Conditions always apply to any expression of freedom and tolerance - America is so diverse and sprawling and fungible that it possibly can pretend that's not true, but it's always true - the people who settled this country certainly understood that, but with so much opportunity and space to exploit and with the threat of available cultural permutations so limited it was easy to pretend tolerance was in a sense absolute - that is of course until the predominant culture bumped up against a truly alien one in the form of aboriginals and proceeded to exterminate them - conditions always apply.
France and America may share an historical attachment to certain ideals - and we're all thankful for those ideals - but France ain't America and it's ridiculous to expect it to be - it's much smaller, it's cultural traditions much less diverse, and its shared sense of history much older and much more set in its ways. I've lived there and I know how proud the predominant culture is and I know for a fact they view Islam as a growing threat - the French may be particularly sensitive to this perceived threat but the fear of Islamification exists throughout western Europe, and it's not because of racism [although it'd be naive to think racism doesn't play a part - then again racism is just a fear of cultural dislocation] or a distrust of Muslims per se but because of a distrust of the inherent political demands of Islam - European history is scarred by religious strife and that's because religion in Europe used to be highly politicized - the almost draconian secularism of the French constitution is an apt reflection of that - well, shariah by its very nature necessarily makes Islam highly political and therefore highly resistant to the adoption of Western norms [I mean if your faith is dependent upon the enactments and oversight of a political entity how can you accept a political entity that doesn't promote your faith?] - and thus you get the fear - awash in delusion in America you may view this fear as hysterical and unsubstantiated - but for Europeans it's real [although the fact that their poorly thought out post colonial immigration protocols created the problem does complicate ones sympathy]... you could put it this way - engage in a thought experiment - imagine that suddenly tomorrow every black in America or every Hispanic suddenly converted to Islam - do you really think the remaining 80% of the non-Muslim population would welcome the change and sing the praises of unending tolerance and comity between divergent cultures? You're living in a dream world if you say yes. Well, in about 30 years it's estimated France will be about 20% Muslim..."
