IMO, it will all come down to whether the muslims overplay their hand.
If they bide their time, multiplying like rabbits and sucking dry the resources of the French state, then in a couple more decades they will have French society in the palm of their hand without having to explode a single bomb. The native French are too degenerate to themselves multiply, as children just get in the way of their hedonistic lifestyle. In certain ways, this is not unlike what happened in Algeria, as what began as a relatively small native Algerian population in the 1840s exploded over the years, eventually vastly outnumbering the French colonists, who had transformed a veritable wasteland into a flourishing agricultural region with thriving cities. Eventually the native Algerian population grew too large to be mastered by the French, and refused to be assimilated into becoming Frenchmen themselves.
On the other hand, if the muslims choose violent confrontation now, they will be destroyed. Anyone familiar with history knows that the French are a far more brutal people than we. The French do not allow political correctness to get in the way of their own interest, they regard that as utter foolishness. Political correctness is something to be preached to others, like the stupid Americains. There is no people on Earth more cynical than the French. For themselves, the French recognize no principle higher than their own narrow self-interest.
Politically-correct liberals decry nuclear power plants. The French blanket their country with them.
Liberals prattle on about banning nuclear tests. The French conduct open-air nuclear explosions in the South Pacific, and sink the ship of the liberals trying to harass them.
Liberals wail about unilateral intervention in the affairs of other countries (no matter how tyrannical or genocidal). The French intervene military in various African countries dozens of times over the last 40 years to suit their own interests, most recently in Cote dIvoire. If genocide is not contrary to French interests, as in Rwanda, the French will either turn a blind eye or abet it.
Liberals wag their fingers about the Geneva Convention. The French torture Algerians or Indochinese opponents whenever it seems doing so furthers their immediate objective.
Liberals denounce the merchants of death of the arms industry peddling their wares to violent regimes around the world. The French are world class leaders in this industry, which is one of the very pillars of their economy.
Liberals constantly defame Big Oil and its partnerships with authoritarian oil-producing countries. There are few oil interests bigger than the French oil company, Total, and they happily hop into bed with the most unsavory regimes (including the French government itself!).
And there are many other examples that could be given.
So therefore, my prediction is that if the threat from violent action by the muslims rises to the level where the native French feel they are existentially threatened, then there will be an ethnic cleansing in France that Milosevic could only marvel at. However, it will take more than property damage to provoke the French into this. If the muslims start killing significant numbers of ethnic French, then they will have signed their own death warrant. The French are not fighting the Wehrmacht here. The French have all the weapons. And they are beyond Christianity, the French will not be constrained by Christian principles of mercy.
So it is in the hands of the muslims. Will they overplay their hand and lose? Or will they patiently wait out the French, and win? We shall see.
A very good post indeed. Thank you for the short French history course which is mostly new ground for me.
Very smart observations.
Nice post.
I'm betting the Muslims will overplay their hand. They always do.