A propos a recent Washington Post story noting the huge Muslim population in French prisons--Muslims make up 60 to 70 percent of French inmates, and 12 percent of the French population--the daringly thoughtful European blogger Fjordman has reminded me of an essay of his from last year called "Muslim Violence: Crime or Jihad?"
He writes:
Violence by Muslims is usually labelled simply as "crime," but I
believe it should more accurately be called Jihad. Those who know
early Islamic history, as described in books such as The Truth About
Muhammad by Robert Spencer, know that looting and stealing the
property of non-Muslims has been part and parcel of Jihad from the
very beginning. In fact, so much of the behavior of Muhammad himself
and the early Muslims could be deemed criminal that it is difficult to
know exactly where crime ends and Jihad begins. In the city of Oslo,
for instance, it is documented that some of the criminal Muslim gangs
also have close ties to radical religious groups at home and abroad.
As Dutch Arabist Hans Jansen points out, the Koran is seen by some
Muslims as a God-given "hunting licence," granting them the right to
assault and even murder non-Muslims. It is hardly accidental that
while Muslims make up about tem percent of the population in France,
they make up an estimated seventy percent of French prison inmates.
Muslims are over-represented in jails in countries all over the world,
and a striking number of non-Muslims in jail also convert to Islam.
Meanwhile, Jeanne Sautière, director of integration and religious groups for the French prison system, puts all such politically incorrect notions out of the Washington Post's mind before they could possibly enter (inadvertently, of course) with this little dictat: "The most important thing is to say there is no correlation between Islam and delinquency."
That's the most important thing to say? You bet. Otherwise people might begin to wake up and smell the jihad.
See Fjordman's essay for a primer on the "correlation" between Islamic jihad and Islamic crime--I mean, "delinquency." (After all, we shouldn't say "criminals," when we can say, a la M. Sautiere, "delinquents"....Then again, how do you say "crews" ("cruise") in French?)