Hmmm, even more intriguing
I think Intell is Nepalese, a nation whose precarious position between two interfering behomoths does genuinely present an existential threat. Not sure if France is under the same risk, but it is a national obsession - exactly why anglo saxon culture is a virulent and crass plague but French culture is a international aspiration that everybody secretly wants deep down is anybody's guess.
The issue with French intellectuals is you essentially have a people who don't like Islam - they don't like religion in general and they especially don't like people dissing the french ideal. But they are in a bind, because although they clearly want everybody out, their sense of superiority comes from the fact they have values etc that don't exactly condone mass deportations. So instead they have to do these crazy warped laws intended to sort of inconvenience Islam away.