I just finished watching a documentary on French television on some French youth of North African origin who emigrated from the economically worn-out suburbs of France to the glitzy Doha, Qatar in search of lucrative economic opportunities. These are talented French-educated architects, photographers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and doctors who faced tremendous racism when they applied for jobs in France. All those featured in the documentary talked about how Qataris were impressed with their qualifications and know-how, things many French employers did not appreciate because their Arab names and Muslim faith readily disqualified them. There seems to be a growing trend across the Persian Gulf -apparently 300-400 French North Africans have recently moved to the United Arab Emirates as mentioned in this Le Figaro article- It will be interesting to see how these French citizens will live their religion in a heavily Islamic society and how that might impact the kind of Islam they will take back with them to the French suburbs. Many of these youth usually have minimal contact with Islam in France. One successful 20-something entrepreneur in the documentary was happy to live in a Muslim country and found it very easy to reconnect with his faith. The Islam he found in Qatar, he said, is a global, progressive Islam.