As Jerome was (is?) wont to say: there are no Muslims in France.

Really? Citation?

(No, I really don't want to get into this "debate", but that takes the cake. Or maybe it's snark?)

As someone outside of France, it took me a number of years to grasp that point.

As an immigrant, I probably embraced the French secular notion rather too zealously. I have largely got over that excess. Meanwhile I have advanced my understanding of Moslem culture and mindset (through personal contact, and also reading Moslem authors, watching TV, listening to music, learning Arabic...)

It gives me better insight about why the French system fails Moslems so miserably. But few clues as to how the situation can be improved. The litany about how colonialist, racist, islamophobic etc attitudes keeps them down is true, but it is not the whole story.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}