France has insoluble problems with part of its Muslim population. This recently became apparent once again when a high school teacher who had shown controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students was beheaded by an 18-year-old Muslim. The French government’s current skirmishes with radical Islam will ultimately be seen as a footnote in a massive and lengthy battle.

The beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, which occurred two weeks after a momentous speech by President Emmanuel Macron in which he unveiled a plan to defend French secular values against “Islamist radicalism,” marked the start of what might turn out to be an all-out war between France and the Islamic world, with Turkey’s Erdoğan leading the Muslim charge. By taking a stand against Muslim extremist violence and suppression of freedom of speech, Macron might find himself facing a new wave of Islamic terror.