"They have no work. They have nothing to do. Put yourself in their place," said Abderrahmane Bouhout, president of the Clichy-sous-Bois mosque, where a tear gas grenade exploded Sunday evening. Local youths suspected a police attack, and authorities are investigating.
The violence cast doubt on the success of France's model of seeking to integrate its large immigrant community — its Muslim population, at an estimated 5 million, is Western Europe's largest — by playing down differences between ethnic groups. But rather than be embraced as full and equal citizens, immigrants and their French-born children often complain of police harassment and of being refused jobs, housing and opportunities.
I guess the answer to Adolph's question is, after 60 some years, Yes.
Paris now...America shortly:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1514550/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1513562/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1514703/posts
The whackjobs are becoming more "out there" and hardened in their unsupportable beliefs. You can't even discuss issues with them anymore...they don't want to hear it.
I hope that Maine is watching closely and considering its gigantic Somali population.
Maybe John Kerry will go over and negotiate the peace.... haha
Will the Breton’s be next? They were badly oppressed at one time by the French. If a minority wishes for change, all they have to do is burn a few cars and buildings, toss some rocks…
WOW! I thought France was the Utopian Mecca according to the Liberals? Could they have been wrong? OOPS
Has anyone seen pictures of these 'youths' throwing stones, attacking cars, etc? MSM always seems to get the RIGHT shot in Israel, yet they somehow seem to have miss the opportunity in Paris. Seriously people, where are those great AP action shots?
But the whirled newz two-night hasn't mentioned anything about it so it can't be so bad, can it? Perhaps if some white people rioted then they would mention it?
Paris under siege...talk about a standing headline.
This is what happens when you invite millions of lunatic death cultist Jihadis to live in your country.
Dare we challenge the PC taboos and ask, "Do these "immigrants" really want to intergrate into the West?"
UPDATE---
Shots fired as French riots escalate
By Paul Carrel
34 minutes ago
BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - Rioters shot at police and fire crews in the worst night in a week of violence in poor Paris suburbs, as France's conservative government struggled to respond to the unrest.
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Youths rampaged in nine poor suburbs north and east of Paris, home to North African and black African minorities frustrated at their failure to get jobs or recognition in French society, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.
"It's a dramatic situation. It is very serious and we fear that the events could even get worse tonight," said Francis Masanet, secretary general of the UNSA police trade union.
Prefect Jean-Francois Cordet, the government's top official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region, confirmed rounds had been fired at police and fire crews in three separate incidents.
"Four live bullets were fired. Two shots were fired at La Courneuve against police. One shot was fired at Noisy-le-Sec against fire crews, and one shot was fired against fire crew in Saint-Denis," he told a news conference.
Cordet did not say what sort of weapon had been fired but media said local police recovered shotgun cartridges from the scene at La Courneuve.
No one was reported as hurt in the shootings, which marked an escalation in the level of violence that left 177 charred vehicles and damaged a primary school and shopping center.
Cordet said four police officers and two fire fighters were hurt, including one who was burned on the face by a Molotov cocktail. Twenty-nine people were detained and 23 remained in custody, he added.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin discussed the crisis with elected officials from the riot struck areas, as the government struggled to respond to the violence and the opposition taunted the conservative's much-vaunted crime record.
He will hold a working lunch with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, his potential rival to lead the right in 2007 presidential elections, in a display of unity after government squabbling over how to respond to the violence.
ZERO TOLERANCE
Governments across Europe have been confronted with violence in deprived inner city areas, and the unrest in France comes despite Sarkozy's anti-crime drive led in the wake of President Jacques Chirac re-election in 2002, won on law and order issues.
The week of unrest first broke out in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb after two teenagers were electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance. The deaths touched off pent up frustrations in the area and quickly spread to other underprivileged dormitory towns that ring the Paris area.
"Because of this, we will not go to school tomorrow. Look at the pollution, we can't even breathe and I'm asthmatic," one resident in the Blanc-Mesnil area told Reuters television after a seventh straight night of unrest in the Paris region.
Sarkozy, whose attacks on the "scum" behind urban violence have prompted the opposition to say he has enflamed passions, visited the operations room in the Bobigny suburb overnight, out of the sight of cameras that usually accompany him everywhere.
The minister, who has vowed "zero tolerance" on rioters, told lawmakers on Wednesday he had dispatched an extra 2,000 police and gendarmes to troubled areas.
"When I hear some people say that the presence of police can be provocative for some people, if the presence of police provokes some people, I know a lot of others who are delighted that the police and the gendarmes are in their area," he said.
A trade union representing policemen described the unrest as a "civil war" and called on Sarkozy to impose a curfew in the affected areas to ensure violence did not spiral out of control.
The day after Chirac called for dialogue and for calmer minds to prevail, Social Cohesion Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said people should not develop a one-sided image of the suburbs.
"One must not think for one second that this is the life of these neighborhoods," Borloo told France 2 television. "They are an integral part of our country. It is in these neighborhoods that most companies are being founded."
(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich and Jon Boyle)
Hit tune: "Will You Join in our Jihad?"
Real French revolution requires barricades. So far none have been reported.
Our mistake was thinking that the Sunnis would understand anything other response.
So, despite our motives and noble intent to find a peaceful solution, our actions were universally perceived as 'backing down'. This emboldened the resistance, and lead to a devastating and bloody siege that left the city in ruins. Our generally admirable desire to negotiate and seek understanding actually costs lives and prolongs problems when they aren't caused by a lack of understanding in the first place.
Now, these sububrs in France are becoming the Fallujah to Paris's Baghdad. A symbol of successful defiance. A base of strength from which to hide, recruit, and plan. The longer the French wait to act, the weaker and more vulnerable they will be perceived to be. Should they fail to do anything at all, then they are setting up a nightmare scenario where local extremist leaders will have built street credibility, connections and a myth of valorous resistance. Those are the building blocks of a real insurgency. Treating the heads of these extremist gangs as serious, legitimate leaders and opening dialog with them will be like spraying gas on the fire.
France will wish they had dealt with this while they had the chance, rather than waste time in empty negotiations. These rioters aren't motivated by a lack of sensitivity, economic opportunity and understanding. If they were, every city in North Africa would be in flames.
The rioters want power, and they intend to take as much from the French as they can get.
Somewhere within these mobs, France's 'Abu Musab al Zarqawi' is coming to power.
Shots fired as French riots escalate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051103/ts_nm/france_riots_dc_12
mama always said, "violence begets violence"
mama says, "it's time to show the islimes
what their violence has wrought them."
They need to unload the rubber bullets & replace them with real ones.