If you ever go to Paris, do not: 1) take the train into the Gare Nord from DeGaulle Airport; 2) get off at the Les Halles metro stop; 3) be in the Metro after closing at 12:30 pm. All of these locales are plagued by angry young Muslims looking for, and often causing trouble.
After eating dinner at Montmarte, myself and maybe 7 or 8 biz colleagues (Americans + Parisians) walked over to Sacre-Coeur to take in the nighttime view. Maybe 12:30 or later.
The parking lot was full of middle-Eastern looking kids, some smoking dope and drinking wine.
We didn't feel threatened, but we didn't stick around too long either.
Sounds like Paris needs Rudy Giuliani. Those areas of Paris don't sound all that different from quite a few areas in New York City under David Dinkins, mayor.
Rudy Giuliani came in and cleaned up the city making it a whole lot safer for the law abiding residents. He operated on the "broken window" theory of law enforcement.
Paris needs to not look at these young men as Muslims, but as lawbreakers who are preventing decent law-abiding citizens from having full access to their city. People have the right to live in peace and security. A government's duty is to protect the population.
Paris does itself no favors by not enforcing its laws and actually creates an atmosphere where more disorder, chaos, and danger can grow.
If ALL of your women were denied ANY sexual pleasure EVER in their lives, you'd be angry too. Weird ain't it?
Seemed perfectly safe to me when I was there last spring. However, that may have had something to do with the fact there were as many FA MAS-toting troopers patrolling the terminal than there were travelers.