Yes, Islam Is Facing a Crisis. No, France Isn't Helping Solve It.

[Backseat Driver]

2. Oh-oh, the headboard bookcase is filled with fatwa-ed Salman Rushdie novels and Rumi poetry...

alongside The Holy Bible. Do you think that's the reason my one-time next-door neighbors never greeted either of us with so much as a "good morning" or a "salam alaykum."

The horror that they parked their big black Uber cars in front of the fire hydrant (they'd look out-see a strange woman in immodest shorts and tank-top and ignore my knock on the door meant only to warn them of the high cost of a tow) or that (within earshot) they warned their kids, in English, that we "would eat them" never provoked this infidel to lethal violence.

I confess, though, I once found some bagpipe tunes I thought they'd enjoy through the wall in spite of what I heard this side, and when that didn't work, I downloaded my own program to announce their proper times of prayer and turned the speakers up quite loud because I was tired of hearing theirs though my walls..sort of if you can't lick 'em, join 'em ---ain't apartment living grand.

One of the nicest of the doctors I once worked with was a Muslim from Syria; he was married to a French general's beautiful daughter whose idea of shopping included hopping a jet for Paris. We had some very interesting discussions back in the day.