Why the French favour secularism over appeasement in the fight to defeat Islamic extremism

In the apartment block next to mine in Paris there are two Muslim families. One I see often: the dad dresses in jeans and a t-shirt, and when the weather is good he’s in the park playing with his kids. So, too, the mum: a stylish woman who matches her headscarves to whatever else she wears with the effortless chic of a Parisian. I see less of the other family: the husband dresses in the white robes of a Salafist and never goes to the park with his child. I’ve seen his wife only once. The two families are emblematic of the fight France faces to defeat Islamic extremism. It will be a long fight. In a report in its weekend magazine earlier this month, Le Figaro said:

‘Perhaps, in fifty years, the secularisation of Islam will have occurred, but it will be necessary to go through ten years of high tension’.

Francois Hollande alluded to this tension in comments publicised last week from a book by two journalists from Le Monde:

‘It’s true there is a problem with Islam. Nobody