On Sunday two youths stole a moped and killed themselves by crashing it into a police car. The neighborhood of Villiers le Bel promptly then went into a full scale riot which is now slowly spreading outside to other neighborhoods.
Press reports state these riots are more intense than the 2005 riots. So far seventy-seven police have been wounded with rioters engaging them with petrol bombs and shotguns.
The dead were African Muslims who lived in Villiers le Bel. The neighborhood were the violence started was the center of North African French Jews but is no ethnically mixed. There are reports of increased antisemitism fueled by Islamism. Unlike the 2005 riots; however, there does not appear to be even a shadow of networking involved in the attacks. The motive seems to be general discontent with the French system, lack of assimilation, lack of jobs, with the Muslim faith acting as an identity.
The French have failed making the immigrants, sons of immigrants, and grandsons of immigrants French. The blog has warned about this before. For the good of all of France and all the people who live in it, President Sarkozy must adopt not only a tough on crime approach but also make sure France's citizens can enjoy benefits of citizenship. If not, Paris will continue to burn.
1 comment:
For reasons unknown, Muslim minorities tend to cause a disproportionate amount of friction in their host societies. (The U.S. being a notable exception)
For this reason, Europe should seek to minimize its exposure to Muslim immigration. A far better source of low-wage immigrants is the admission of Ukraine into the European Union, which would have the double benefit of pushing the "Heartland" power of Russia farther away from the Rimland.
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