Posted on 07/31/2004 6:13:39 AM PDT by jalisco555
Many French city suburbs are becoming ethnic ghettoes, a report has warned. The study by the French domestic intelligence services found many areas were populated by poor, young French of north African immigrant backgrounds.
The report, leaked to Le Monde newspaper, found at least half of the 630 suburbs it looked at had already become separate ethnic communities.
The report warned the ghettoes, cut off from mainstream French society, could encourage radical Islam to take root.
The intelligence service report deals with an extremely sensitive issue for France: just how bad the sense of alienation has become in the suburbs, among the French-born children of north African immigrant background.
-French domestic intelligence report
The report - given to the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin - concludes that the situation is actually worse than previously thought.
Of the suburbs studied, the report says at least half could already be called ghettoes, whose inhabitants felt rejected by, and were in turn rejecting, mainstream French society.
The areas studied were chosen because they already had problems with unemployment, crime and violence, had a high proportion of immigrant families - some still practising polygamy - plus a growing number of Islamic prayer rooms as well as frequent anti-Western and anti-Semitic graffiti.
The intelligence services noted that many families of immigrant origin were rejecting French values and even the French language, following instead more traditional ways of life associated with their ethnic origin - including an increasing religious radicalisation among young Muslims, and a backlash against young Muslim women who wore Western clothing.
Better-off families, mainly those of white European origin, were leaving such suburbs, creating an even greater sense of isolation.
Divide widens
The report's conclusions will worry the government, although they are not entirely unexpected.
For decades, France had hoped that its immigrants and their children would simply integrate into secular French society.
Instead, it seems, the opposite has been happening, with the divide becoming ever greater.
France's new law, banning the Islamic headscarf from state schools, had already provoked a national debate on integration.
In an attempt to solve the problems of France's city suburbs, the government has proposed a five-year plan to improve social cohesion - although, as the newspaper Le Monde concludes, it will be a race against time.
Well, I guess the answer is to allow even more Mohammedan immigration.
It's going to be bloody and ugly when the Muslims rise-up and begin slaughtering the Froggies. I wonder if the Frenchies will fight back, or will they just acquiesce and become dhimmis?
It's too late, baby,it's too-o late....
... and who will come to their aid? Not my son.
That's the name of the game . - Tom
Put in a call to the Arsenal of Democracy.
"The report, leaked to Le Monde newspaper, found at least half of the 630 suburbs it looked at had already become separate ethnic communities. "
Sounds typically elitist in a snotty French way to call an ethnic community a "Ghetto".
So when the great French Civil War comes, are we going to bail them out militarily?
Yeah, probably. It's what we do, isn't it?
Actually, the Muslim areas really are ghettos. The huge housing complexes were built after WW II to house hundreds of thousands of "guest workers" brought in from Morocco and Algeria to rebuild. After the 1960s, the guest workers weren't needed anymore, but because of generous French socialism, they didn't return to Northern Africa.
From what I've read, these projects were built on the outskirts of the suburbs, often cut off by highways with few bridges or access roads. They have train stops but apparently less than you would expect given the population density.
Interestingly, most French Muslims are citizens of France now; the EU rules over the past decade have made their children automatic citizens, and many of the guest workers have been naturalized.
Their schools are almost entirely Muslim. From what I've read about the school controversies, about the only thing keeping them *marginally* attached to French society is that unlike here in the US, French schools do *not* foster "multiculturalism." They have a national curriculum and national lesson plans (so that teachers day by day must teach to the same plan, everywhere.) If they did it like we do here in the US, the kids in these Muslim schools would be speaking in Arabic, doing "Muslim studies" all day long, etc. This the French will *not* allow.
What's also bad about these ghettos is that they've become major recruiting grounds for radical, jihadi Muslims (mostly wahhabists from Saudi Arabia.)
It depends who is US Pres if the Frogs get into any tye of trouble..If it`s Bush, he will send over Hans Blix to study the situation for years and then put a vote to the UN in which the US will vote against offering the French any help (wouldn`t I LOVE to see that!), if it`s Kerry he will go into an absolute blind panic and send every US man woman and child over there to save his homeland.
There have always been ethnic ghettos of recent immigrants in large cities.
The problem in France is the fact that one ethnicity is out to "convert" the world.
Villepin and his compatriots retire the trophy for the Ostrich Awards--a preliminary to the Darwin Awards.
What's coming will not be pleasant.
Is there an award for mindless optimism?
"Instead, it seems, the opposite has been happening, with the divide becoming ever greater."
What about an ignoring-the-predictable award?
"France's new law, banning the Islamic headscarf from state schools..."
I hate to tell you, but the headscarf is not the problem.
"the government has proposed a five-year plan to improve social cohesion"
What about a bandaid-on-a-cancer award?
Oh nevermind. The Darwin Award's going to cover it all.
Hey, as long as they just kill jews who gives a rat's patoot? Vive La France!
In that event, I'll be on the antiwar side. No more for France.
Helping would be impossible, anyway.
The French happen to be on the right track on this one, I believe. We tend to take a benign view of a cultural symbol in the interest of free expression. But the hijab is a gang marker like grafitti on a wall. The more markers, the bolder the gang--"We own this place". Control the markers, and you come a surprising distance in controlling the gang.
We ought to forbid the hijab in schools. Let 'em stay home if they don't like it. Does a Muslim girl need to read?
Wait until your local elem school has a few girls in this outward symbol of Islam. It'll feel like the Ku Klux Klan is dressing their kids for your school...shudder...
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