And I find it rather ironic that in a discussion about identity and feeling that one's identity is threatened, there are several Americans in this thread talking about "McDonalds" instead of the actual chain's name, as if clearly every hamburger restaurant chain has to be the American McDonalds, whatever silly name those foreigners come up with. After all, if there's one country in Europe that sees threats to its cultural identity coming not just from the Muslim immigrants but also from the USA, it's France.

Another irony is you talking about how French "native" culture is supposedly so under pressure, considering the way Paris has tried for several centuries now (and largely succeeded) to repress regional cultures and languages within the French borders - Breton, Occitan, Savoyard, Alsacien, the lot of them.

I don't disagree with your basic point, and as you can see in my initial reply to this discussion, I too have sympathy for those among the French who feel threatened by this kind of thing. But you're going a bit far by my taste when you start giving the impression the past was so much better and French had its idyllic culture and whatnot. The few Breton nationalists that remain may have a rather different opinion on that.