The French vocation

Ed Husain, in an article in today's Spectator entitled Macron is preparing for intellectual battle against Islamism:

"In Britain, we are worryingly blind to the dangers of the narrative of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and their allies. Boris Johnson is a Renaissance man who debated the superiority of the Greeks with Mary Beard at night while he was mayor of London by day. To take on this debate in support of the Enlightenment is to join Macron in defence of civilisation. It is to remind the West again of who we are and confidently invite Muslims to come on board. Time is not on our side."

Yes but enlightenment values are not what Catholic, monarchist France is. They are what French republicans care about, but they do not define them either. 

Enlightenment values do not a Frenchman make. Nor an Englishman. Arguably an American is made of values, though that can be argued either way and I have argued against it several times on this blog. Trump should have critiqued Islamism but it would have been counter-productive. Stopping people from outside Europe settling in France would be the best and simplest step to take to do battle with Islamism.

Charles de Gaulle said: 

"It is very good that there are yellow French, black French, brown French. They show that France is open to all races and has a universal vocation. But on condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are still primarily a European people of the white race, Greek and Latin culture, and the Christian religion.... Those who advocate integration have the brain of a hummingbird. Try to mix oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a second, they will separate again. Arabs are Arabs, the French are French. Do you think the French body politic can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million, after tomorrow forty? If we integrated, if all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered French, would you prevent them to settle in France, where the standard of living is so much higher? My village would no longer be called Colombey-The-Two-Churches but Colombey-The-Two-Mosques."