From the London Times, an interesting take on what’s happening in France – and elsewhere in Europe – from Jonathan Sachs, a prominent British rabbi:

“Then there is the collapse of the concept of national belonging, the feeling that we are all in this together and that the distress of some of us is a matter for all of us. Far from being a means of integration, multiculturalism has become a path to segregation. There are fewer mixed neighbourhoods, more urban and suburban ghettos. The ties that bind grow ever weaker. The forces that divide become stronger year by year… Language suggests a connection between these things. Think of the words “political” and “polite”, “urban” and “urbane”, “civilisation” and “civility” all derived from Greek or Latin words for “city”, the place where strangers come together to live and trade. They remind us of the myriad habits of self-imposed restraint that alone allow people of different faiths and customs to live together graciously. Cultures built on anger cannot survive…You have to build a society before you can have a state. States exist by reason of power. Societies exist through a shared moral code and a sense of collective responsibility. The symbols of states are palaces and parliaments. The institutions of society are families, neighbourhoods, communities and schools. For some years now we have been living under the illusion that you can have a state without a society, politics without politeness, civilisation without civility. You can’t. There is no shortcut that allows us to bypass the long, slow task of society-building; integrating minorities, creating a shared sense of history and destiny and cultivating a national conversation in which each of us has a voice. Otherwise the prospects are dark. When conversation ends, violence begins.”