Paris riots: who's to blame? "Urban terrorists, led by knots of criminals and Islamic radicals"

Dispatch Co ^ | 05 Nov 05

[jb6]

WHAT IS behind the Paris riots? Organised gangs of criminals or even Islamic radicals out to undermine the state - or failure by successive governments to give millions of immigrants a chance in life?

Rampages that have gripped the poorer immigrant-populated outskirts of Paris since October 27, spreading for the first time on Thursday night to other parts of the country, have left most struggling for an explanation.

The rioters are young, overwhelmingly Muslim men, second-generation immigrants from France's former Arab and African colonies, who claim they are protesting against economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing.

This argument has been widely echoed in the press, by Muslim and community representatives and by the leftwing opposition, which accuses the centre-right government of slashing budgets for social work in these communities.

Hard-line new law-and-order policies implemented by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have also been widely accused of fuelling anger in the high-rise, mainly immigrant estates where the trouble has spread.

Sociologist Michel Wierviorka, speaking in Le Parisien newspaper, charged that Sarkozy had "stigmatised entire communities" by arguing that crime-ridden areas should be "cleaned with a power-hose".

But the interior minister - while recognising more must be done to haul the suburbs out of poverty and exclusion - insists the violence was being orchestrated by unknown ringleaders.

Police union leader Bruno Beschizza described the riots as "urban terrorism", led by small knots of criminals as well as Islamic radicals.

"This is a form of urban terrorism led by a minority of kingpins, who have a financial interest - such as drug trafficking - or an ideological one - such as Islamic radicals who have been seen by our colleagues."

These ringleaders were a "tiny minority", the head of the Synergie union said yesterday, adding that his view was backed by many social workers and lawmakers in the worst-hit Seine-Saint Denis region northeast of Paris.

The role, if any, of Islam in the recent upsurge in violence, which has affected mainly Muslim neighbourhoods, is a highly sensitive issue in France.

Paris's Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has warned against lumping together "a religion, Islam", with "a handful of extremists" and with "criminal networks". In many cases Muslim community leaders have been acting as mediators between youths and the authorities, going door-to-door to talk to the families of young rioters, or stepping in at night to stop the clashes.

Most observers searching for the root causes of the riots accuse successive governments of turning a blind eye as immigrant ghettos, synonymous with unemployment and social deprivation, swelled outside France's big cities.

Today, some 750 areas are classed as "Sensitive Urban Zones", where unemployment hovers at 20 percent. - Sapa-AFP

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"As much as we all like to dislike the French, the fact that there are parts of the Paris area that are ungovernable, is frightening."

Uh, that little ungovernable factoid can be applied to certain ethnic groups clustered in more than a few inner cities here in the US of A.

It has crossed by mind more than once, the reason immigration is not enforced here, is because our pols are afraid of LA and CA becoming not unlike France.

[backhoe]

Is Paris Burning? ( Religion of Peace® Alert )
Click the picture:

Islam, The Alleged Religion of Peace® ( TARP™ )? Click this picture:

No, I am not exaggerating. Click the pic, go to "last," and read backwards.
If you are not informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.

---

Kindly note tagline...

Is Paris Burning? ( Religion of Peace® Alert )
Click the picture:

Islam, The Alleged Religion of Peace® ( TARP™ )? Click this picture:

No, I am not exaggerating. Click the pic, go to "last," and read backwards.
If you are not informed about this stuff, you will be made sick. If you are informed, you will be made mad, all over again.

---

Kindly note tagline...

[Caipirabob]

Why on earth would atheists be rioting??

True Communists and Socialists are traditionally atheists, placing the government or collective above God.

And we see them creating major disturbances, most recently with those world-trade organization gatherings and recently during President Bush's free trade meeting this weekend.

It's kind of hard to tell, are the Islamofascists the tool of the Communists and Socialists, or is it the other way around? They all seem to be employing the "enemy of my enemy" philosophy, but their ultimate goals are diametrically opposed. One group is aiming for a secular collective and the other is aiming for an archaic Islamic state.

[Caipirabob]

Decades of pantywaistism has done them in.

Now that's a term I want to see in a history book on this event - LOL!

[Dan Nunn]

Interesting post, thank you for the analysis. This really means we must keep electing conservatives to high offices, or WE will be the ones paying to sustain their welfare state in the way of foreign aid.

[livius]

It makes no sense to blame it on drug dealers. They're not great citizens, but simple common sense would be enough to tell them that destroying their supply chains, driving away their clientele and attracting police attention is hardly the way to grow their "business."

No, I'm afraid there is only one group behind this, although you'd have to pull the collective fingernails out of the press and the politicos before they would admit it.

[JasonC]

I don't care why they are rioting and I don't want to understand them. Nor do I want them to think better of it and stop. I just want them to come out in the open and to be shot. Not complicated.