Antisemitism is always been a canary in the coal mine, the harbinger of bad things to come for those nations that tolerate or encourage it.
So it shouldn't surprise anyone that as antisemitic riots by Islamist migrants over Gaza engulfed Paris, the rioters also desecrated the most sacred patriotic emblem of France itself, the gold statue of Joan of Arc in Paris.
Here they are in action:
PARIS: Islamist rioters climb the statue of Joan of Arc and wave the Palestinian flag.
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) June 1, 2025
They are using their team’s victory as an excuse to wreak havoc. But had they lost, they would’ve done the same!
From Joan of Arc to Islamists taking over, what a tragic downgrade for France. pic.twitter.com/lSN89OsCmQ
The rioting followed a soccer victory by France -- but instead of waving the French flag, they waved the Palestinian one.
Soccer hooliganism until recently was never seen in France. Several years ago, I watched the World Cup on television with a French audience and was amazed to hear the French 'boo' their own team for bad sports behavior. Now the hooliganism culture, previously seen only in England and Germany, is so bad it involves attacking symbols of French greatness.
It's disgusting. It's like attacking the Statue of Liberty here.
Joan of Arc is the symbol of the French nation, and for good reason -- she's the reason it exists at all. Joan was a humble shepherd girl in the late 15th century who heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, who urged her to lead French troops to military victory over France's British invaders.
Somehow, she did, her role in the victory that followed the Siege of Orleans in 1429, allowed the French king to be crowned, heartening France. According to Mark Twain's research (he wrote a magnificent book about her based on many years' scholarly research), France had been an absolute wasteland of demoralization after many years war, gray with homeless vets all over the countryside, begging for food. Joan improbably rallied them into an effective fighting force.
The war not over, Joan continued until she was captured by the Burgundians, who put on a kangaroo court loaded with rigging, deceit, and deception, and quickly burned her at the stake as a heretic on May 30, 1431 at the age of 19. The Hundred Years War then carried on for another couple decades until it burned out but France remained standing.
The gold covered bronze statue, by Emmanuel Fremiet, created in 1874, was done in a wave of patriotism following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 which toppled its emperor at the time, Napoleon III, and was followed by a grotesque, atheistic, and violent period of rule known as the Paris Commune, characterized by proto-Marxist wokester ideas, including a shutdown of all the Catholic churches in the country, and firing squads going overtime, later seen repeated in full-blown horror in Russia in 1917. The foul period lasted only a few months.
France was obviously in distress, though, and in the years that followed, a newfound respect for Joan of Arc, who saved her country from the British and their Burgundian allies during the 100 Years' War in similar distress, emerged. By 1920, Joan was canonized as a saint.
To give a feel for the ferver of the era, in the late 19th century, another young French girl, later a nun who herself became St. Therese of Lisieux, was devoted to St. Joan and greatly inspired by her. She even acted out the role of St. Joan -- there are actual photographs of it.
According to Aleteia, St. Therese wrote:
[In] my admiration of the patriotic deeds of the heroines of France, especially of the Venerable Joan of Arc, I longed to do what they had done. About this time I received what I have looked on as one of the greatest graces of my life, for, at that age, I was not favored with lights from Heaven, as I am now. Our Lord made me understand that the only true glory is that which lasts for ever; and that to attain it there is no necessity to do brilliant deeds, but rather to hide from the eyes of others, and even from oneself, so that “the left hand knows not what the right hand does.” Then, as I reflected that I was born for great things, and sought the means to attain them, it was made known to me interiorly that my personal glory would never reveal itself before the eyes of men, but that it would consist in becoming a Saint.
Aleteia continued:
Resolved to do great deeds by becoming a hidden saint, little Thérèse entered Carmel and spent the remainder of her life in the cloister. While there, she retained her desire to imitate the heroism of Joan of Arc and explained in her autobiography how she, “should like to accomplish the most heroic deeds–the spirit of the Crusader burns within me, and I long to die on the field of battle in defense of Holy Church.”
Today, there seems to be a wokester hatred of Joan and all she stood for from within the French establishment.
In Nice, a statue of Joan was ordered torn down by a leftist court over permitting technicalities. A parade honoring St. Joan was shut down. In Paris, there's a bid to smear Joan as an emblem of the far right, not patriotism, visible in press accounts and public statements. It would be interesting to learn what they consider "patriotism."
In an atmosphere like that, is it any surprise that Islamist Gaza protestors might just feel bold enough to desecrate the gold statue of the saint who represents that nation?
We know the French rallied heavily to the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral after a still-suspicious fire as a national mission. Might they react similarly to this kind of desecration of the memory of St. Joan by antisemitic foreigners? The outrage should be livid in light of scenes like this.
I sincerely hope it is. Nothing good will come of foreign migrants desecrating the statue honoring St. Joan.
Image: Screen shot from X video.