OPINION:
I have just returned from a business trip to Paris. To get to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, I hailed a cab at the foot of the towering Hyatt Regency at Porte Maillot. As is my practice, I immediately began a conversation with my cabdriver.
Just as is the case with many cabdrivers in Paris, my cabbie’s accent indicated that he was not a native Frenchman. In response to an inquiry, he informed me that he was Algerian by birth. Armed with that knowledge, it was with some trepidation that I chose to engage in a dialogue with him. I feared receiving a lecture on the superiority of Islamist ideology and a diatribe against France and the United States.
That was not at all what transpired.
My driver quickly let me know that, though Algerian, he was not an Arab but a Berber. Indeed, he quickly turned his description into a tirade against Arabs and even Muslims generally. He informed me that he came from the Kabylia coastal region around Algiers, a region with a large Berber population, and that he did not agree with any of the policies of the Algerian government, which he referred to as a brutal military dictatorship.
I was rather taken aback by his remarks. I had assumed that Algerians were essentially all Arabs and that the nation was a haven for contemporary Islamism. The cabbie made it a point to disabuse me of my views. He asserted that a large portion of Algerians were not Arab but rather Berbers and that many Berbers were not Muslims. He affirmed that, personally, he was an atheist with no interest in any particular religion or other people’s religions.
This affirmation did not, however, extend to Islamists, for whom he expressed the utmost disdain. His voice rising, he castigated certain aspects of Islam, in particular highlighting the absence of cafes and bars in Algiers and the inability of women to access many public places. By contrast, he asserted that his Berber region allowed women to be freely present wherever and whenever they chose.
Having described the virtues of his Berber community, he went on to forcefully explain why he was so offended by Islamists and large segments of the Muslim population: because, as he asserted, so many Muslims either overtly or covertly espouse the “fanatical Islamist ideology.”
His concern about Islamists led him to make some rather dire predictions. He asserted with vehemence that violence was a fundamental underpinning of the Islamist ideology and went on at length with that line of thinking. He predicted that France was on the verge of experiencing considerable violence. His analysis was, he said, based in part on the theory that virtually all Islamist violence of recent vintage has been perpetuated not by Middle Eastern Muslims but by Islamists from North Africa.
I had to concede that many of the recent terrorist acts in France seemingly had North African authors. Most notably, the terrible attacks on the Bataclan theater and nearby venues in Paris precisely 10 years ago, which caused not fewer than 130 deaths and hundreds of injuries, were the product of the acts of a North African band of ideologues and misfits.
Most frightening of all, however, was the driver’s belief that France would soon witness a far more devastating attack than it had experienced to date. Thousands of people will be killed in the near future, he insisted, unless France confronts its internal problems. It was, he reiterated, inevitable with Muslim radicalization advancing so rapidly.
As we approached the end of our time together, the driver volunteered two interesting pieces of information. First, without prompting, he explained his personal view that Jews were neither his nor the Berbers’ enemies, that only Muslims were obsessed with Jews. He said he lives in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in Paris and has only good relations with his Jewish neighbors.
Then he offered his generally favorable view of President Trump. He noted that he was often in agreement with Mr. Trump’s policies and especially with his actions. Importantly, the driver highlighted Mr. Trump’s decisive action against Iran, about which he was very laudatory.
As we arrived at the airport and our conversation was coming to an end, I thanked the cabbie for the information he had imparted to me. He, in turn, seemed worried that his comments might have been too inflammatory. However, he asserted that he had to be honest with himself and felt compelled to tell his passenger the truth.
Although instructive and eye-opening, this “truth” was profoundly alarming. Coming from someone personally familiar with the situation both in North Africa and France, my exchange with my driver was especially disconcerting.
As I left the cab, I expressed the hope that he was wrong about his ominous predictions. He looked at me, shook my hand and, with resignation, one last time asserted that he truly believed that in France, terrible violence is imminent.
I pray my cabbie is wrong and that France, the nation where I have spent many happy years, will be spared from the violence he predicts.
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm and the author of “Lobbying for Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.