"war of civilisations"

"Former President Nicolas Sarkozy has already spoken twice about the "war of civilisations" that sounds suspiciously like a French version of Bush's "war on terror", which in present circumstances is the sort of demagoguery that will be music to the ears of jihadis. There is already a potential constituency for jihadism among France's 6 million Muslims, who have been pushed to the margins and see themselves as the victims of old-fashioned racism disguised as a confrontation between progressive secularism and medieval Islamic practices. War exposes and exacerbates such divisions in any country but France is especially vulnerable, because of the legacy of hatred stemming from the Algerian war of independence."