Mutual reinforcement

A couple of posts ago, we noted the continuing relevance of Olivier Roy's emphasis on how Islamism comes into the lives of 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants in Europe and becomes a focus of their pre-existing alienation. That leads to a very different direction than the ideological/ religious conflict angle which many politicians seem to prefer.

The flip side of the latter is examples such as the above -- a rallying poster from General Philip Petain at the time of the Battle of Verdun in World War I; Petain would go on to head the Vichy regime in World War II. The image was posted by a Flemish nationalist MP Karim van Overmeire, who added some tasteful text about the need to directly take on, a la Petain, the "monkeys with beards" who had bombed Brussels. Everyone is working from their own distorted historical lens, with the distortions coming from their personal experiences.