France's unrest is America's future, warns Republican congressman Keith Self

A senior Republican member of the US House of Representatives has blamed mass migration for the violent protests and riots spreading across France. The top lawmaker overseeing Europe policy has warned that the United States could soon follow the same path.

Representative Keith Self of Texas told Fox News Digital that he was not surprised by the violent demonstrations in French cities — and argued, moreover, that they had been a long time coming.

'They've been allowing this to happen for years and years, so they are reaping what they sowed,' Self said. In his words, the US is also trying to get a handle on the consequences of its own mass migration — something France should have done years ago.

Keith Self is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also a co-founder, alongside fellow Texas Republican Chip Roy, of a group called the Sharia-Free America Caucus.

Democrats have criticised the group as Islamophobic, and organisations such as the US Council of Muslim Organizations have condemned it. But Self has not backed away from his position.

Self argued that France's growing Muslim population is at least partly responsible for the riots. He claimed Muslims now make up about 7 percent of France's population and that their concentration in some large cities creates the 'tipping point'. According to France's national statistics institute, Islam is the second-largest religion in the country among people aged 18 to 59, after Catholicism.

France's secular centrist government, however, has blamed far-left groups for the unrest. According to the government, these groups are exacerbating tensions over the high cost of living and expensive education, among other issues.

Several days of violence have seen stores looted and centuries-old buildings burned and desecrated. More than 500,000 people reportedly took to the streets in various French cities and towns over the weekend.

French authorities said 1,800 people were arrested nationwide, with more than 800 of those arrests in the capital, Paris, alone. Amid the protests, the Louvre Museum in Paris announced on Monday that it would remain closed 'for the time being'.

Self described France's situation as an open 'civil war' and said its military should step in, though he was pessimistic that it would. He claimed that if the military does not act, France is very close to losing its culture in its large cities.

Asked whether President Emmanuel Macron should step down, Self said that was up to Macron, though he thought it would probably be beneficial to France. At the same time, he stressed that the chaos should not turn into a backlash against the US-France relationship.

Self proposed that the US should help France with intelligence-gathering about the protests, including facial identification technology — clarifying that he did not mean sending Americans in person. In his words, France is still a very important and large ally and partner, and this is not the time to abandon it.

Meanwhile, events in France are echoing through US politics as well. House Speaker Mike Johnson has described the violence in France as a 'chilling warning' for Americans at home. Self's central message carries the same tone: 'This is a lesson to America. We are watching the future of America in France — and in the UK, frankly.'