I just talked to my French neighbor - who has extensive family throughout the country and watches French TV every night. Her attitude is that it's just Arab scum behaving as they usually do. Nothing serious, nothing to worry about. She could be wrong, of course, but I think her view is shared by most Frenchmen.
It is. I spent some time in Montpellier a few years back. The French really disliked the muslim immigrants. Of course they were dumb enough to let a crowd of people bent on their destruction into the country in the first place.