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Posted on 11/03/2005 9:40:34 PM PST by ncountylee
CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France Talk to people outside the Bilal mosque in this rundown suburb north of Paris and they will tell you what has gone wrong: why rioters for the past week have confronted the police in overnight bursts of anger in the streets, torching cars, hurling rocks and even firing bullets in the worst civil disobedience in France in more than a decade.
Beyond the poverty and despair of life in the shoddy immigrant communities ringing the shining French capital, local Muslims say, there is no one left with any sway over the rioting youths. Parents, the police and the government have all lost touch, they say.
On Thursday, after rioters disregarded an appeal for calm by President Jacques Chirac, firing bullets at the police for the first time as the rioting spread for a seventh consecutive night, the government held emergency meetings throughout the day. But despite Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's vow that "law and order will have the last word," the police were bracing for more violence as night fell.
In Clichy-sous-Bois on Thursday afternoon, outside the entrance of the Bilal mosque - a converted warehouse where a tear-gas grenade landed on Sunday, stoking fury against the police - celebrations of the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast were overshadowed by the widening disturbances.
Opinions about the riots among people gathered at the mosque differed, but everyone from the deputy imam to local council workers and men leaving the midday prayer agreed that the trouble has been compounded by a vacuum of moral authority.
"If you want authority over these kids you need their respect - but all the normal channels of authority lost their respect a long time ago," said Ali Aouad, 42, who has lived in this northeastern town for two decades. "They feel neglected
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Sounds to me like Villepin thinks his middle name is Giuliani, but he's getting no support from any of his cronies. I'm sure the bourgeois bureaucracy just want to surrender -- to someone, anyone! -- and get it over with. Then they can pat themselves on the back about how they "saved Paris" again.
virtually nothing in the US media.
virtually nothing in the US media.
Spray the crowds with lard, warning that shotguns follow.
Pig lard might not be that bad of an idea...
Maybe snooty Liberals will stop telling us we have to raise taxes in the US so we can be more like France.
There are enough muslims in France to make a nifty intafahda by next year if they continue to organize like it appears to be happening.
When you make a deal with the devil, the devil always wins.
Reality will always catch up.
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