France
Posted by David Darlington on 6 November 2005 | 5 responses
I feel we’ve been remiss in not mentioning this story. What on earth is going on in France? Ten days of riots? From this distance, it looks like this is France’s “Los Angeles moment,” where the whole the whole boiling pot of race (the riots started with the death of two African boys running from police), class, and history finally bubbled over. Is extensive immigration to blame? Where does this violence end? Comments are especially welcome from our international readers.
5 Responses to “France”
Pieter Dorsman is a Dutch banker with a politically oriented blog residing in Right Blogistan who has some articulate further insight on the situation in France from the view of someone who lives in the region and is knowledgeable on the subject. http://www.peaktalk.com/archives/001736.php
Basically, this situation in France has more in common with the 60s race riots than they do with any al Quaeda strategies or issues relating to terrorism. The French and other European countries have treated the issue of Muslim immigration with contempt for a long time.
They shovel these folks into suburban housing projects, unemployment runs rampant, the idle boredom of teens who have nothing better to do than to engage in petty thefts and criminal mischief that provokes local beat cops. Sooner or later an incident like what occurred to spark this situation was bound to occur.
But maybe Paris is Europe’s Pearl Harbor in the War on Terror…
I don’t see any equivalency between the Paris riots and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Maybe if Pearl Harbor had been attacked by natives of Hawaii… (I think it would be much easier to attempt a comparison using the terror attacks in London and Madrid.)
Pieter Dorsman says the rioting seems like a disproportional response to not having a job. OK. Fair enough. I could make an equivalent statement saying that the May 1968 events in Paris seemed a disproportionate response to the possibility of being bored with life. The 1229 University of Paris strike seemed a disproportionate response to a bar bill. My point is: Groups of individuals occasionally do crazy things. Especially in France.
I don’t see this as a coordinated Muslim attack on the civilians of France. This isn’t an intifada. This is not the new battle ground for the war on terror. This, however, is certainly an excuse to establish a dialogue regarding immigration and how to pick the right brown people to let into the suburbs. It’s always a good time to discuss that…
Riots in Bradford england where muslim youths smashed and burned there own naighbourhood also tryed burning a local pub down trapping people in it(muslims dont drink alcohol) so the rioters were racialy motivated also no muslim shops or buisneses were tageted.the thing i cannot understand is we in england give money,housing and a good standard of living to everyone working or not we chage the law to protect the minority people.So they riot.Our gettos wernt always run down.If people had more pride in not there religeons but were they live and the people they live with..You know thats a just a pipe dream so there isnt any solution….I am white and i fell oppressed in my own country.
I think alot of it is tied to the friction of France’s multiculturalism with the Muslim concept of jihad.