Questioning the French: Have You Hugged An Arsonist Today?

The Washington Post, like everyone else, is editorializing about the outcome of the first round of the French presidential election. The "extreme rightist" Jean-Marie Le Pen won a surprisingly large number of votes, alarming the leftist elites both in France and across Europe. The Post sees this as a reason for France leaders, among other things, to undergo a self-criticism encounter on race: "France's leaders, beginning with President Chirac, ought to reexamine whether their government is doing enough to foster tolerance toward immigrants, particularly those from the Muslim world, while combating growing anti-Semitism." A balanced recommendation? If both groups were currently facing the same deadly peril, perhaps. If I were handing out recommendations to France's President, however, I'd suggest he spend more time prosecuting the Muslins that have burned down French (and Belgian) synagogues and worry about whether enough tolerance was being fostered toward Muslin immigrants some other day.