A pack of six North African youths set off a national firestorm in France after they attacked a 23-year-old French woman and her baby. The men drew swastikas on her stomach, beat her, cut her hair, and tipped over her baby carriage. They did this, the victim alleged, because the thugs incorrectly believed her to be Jewish.

The anti-Semitic assault elicited condemnation from President Jacques Chirac and drew international headlines.

The crime initially proved difficult to solve. No area surveillence tapes showed an Islamic gang, let alone one fleeing the scene. Not one of the twenty people who the victim claimed witnessed the crime came forward. And the young mother who endured the anti-Semitic assault had a history of filing phony police reports.

It turns out the attack occurred only in its victims imagination. She made it all up.

Well, at least it was a reaction in the right direction, not a misguided one. Considering France's history of anti-Semitism and its growing Islamic population (and a growing subsection of it which is more conservative, sometimes bordering on reactionary), it is good to see the French govt. speaking out against anti-Semitism.

That started me thinking: What would it mean for an Islamic group to be 'conservative' let alone 'reactionary' in France?

Perhaps the conservatives merely want a restoration of the Catholic monarchy?

Perhaps the reactionaries don't mind the restoration of the Catholic monarchy, but demand also the restoration of the pre-Versailles decentralized power of the feudal lords.

Hmmm. Islamic French reactionaries...perhaps its like a square circle.

Anyhow, it's too confusing for me.