Perhaps the French will be encouraged by the example of Italy, where for the first time Muslims took to the streets and demonstrated, in Rome, to condemn Islamist terrorism. It was not a huge demonstration, but it was a start. There has as yet been no such demonstration in France, but a (small) number of Muslim authority figures have (with varying degrees of conviction or feebleness) come out with condemnations.

It may be wishful thinking to imagine that the attitudes of the French, if indeed they have changed at all, will be taken into account by the French political class. It almost certainly is. The only thing they will take into account is the strength of Marine Le Pen, and so far there is nothing to indicate that they have a plan to counter it. We have no Mitterrand to lead us; there is no one remotely likely to provide statesmanship, as indeed there has not been since his day. The principle of laïcité may not save us, but in France there is no other option; it has, up to a point, worked in the past. It has protected France from some of the grotesque symptoms of multiculturalism we have witnessed in England. (I’m pretty sure the mayor of Strasbourg was an exception: he famously justified his decision to ban pork and serve halal meat in the city’s schools while refusing to serve fish on Fridays with the claim that the former was required by respect for religion while the latter was impossible because of the principle of laïcité).

Secularism, indeed, is the only thing we have to cling on to. There is still a vague historical awareness among the French of Europe as the sphere of Christendom, but it will not last. Certainly the Eurocrats are doing their best to obliterate it from human memory. The principles of laïcité and equality before the law are the best weapons we have. No one has any idea if they could — given the political will, which is conspicuously lacking — be enforced even in the French suburbs, let alone in the face of millions of refugees, many of whom are discinclined to accord much respect to laïcité. The example of countries like Sweden does not inspire optimism.

In short, yes, it is probably all wishful thinking. But those principles are all we have.