Amir Taheri: FRANCE'S TICKING TIME BOMB [rebirth of "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire]

benadorassociates.com / Arab News ^ | November 5, 2005 | Amir Taheri

[Tolik]

As the night falls, the "troubles" start; and the pattern is always the same. Bands of youths in balaclavas start by setting fire to parked cars, break shop windows with baseball bats, wreck public telephones, and, ransack cinemas, libraries and schools. Once the police have arrived on the scene, the rioters attack them with stones, knives and baseball bats. The police respond by firing tear-gas grenades and, on occasions, blank shots in the air. Sometimes the youths fire back, with real bullets.

The scenes described above are not from the West Bank but from 16 French cities, most of them close to the capital Paris, that have been plunged in a European version of the "intifada" which at the time of writing appears beyond control.

When the troubles first began in Clichy-sous-Bois, an underprivileged suburb east of Paris, a week ago France's bombastic Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy responded by sending over 400 heavily armed policemen to "impose the laws of the republic" and promised to crush " the louts and hooligans" within the day. Within a few days, however, it had dawned on anyone who wanted to know that this was no "outburst by criminal elements" that could be handled with a mixture of braggadocio and batons. By last Monday everyone in Paris was speaking of "an unprecedented crisis". Both the interior minister and his boss, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, had to cancel foreign trips to deal with the riots.

But how did it all start? The accepted account is that sometime last week a group of young boys in Clichy engaged in one of their favorite sports: Stealing parts of parked cars. Normally, nothing dramatic would have happened as the police have not been present in that suburb for years. The problem came when one of the inhabitants, a female busybody, telephoned the police and reported the thieving spree taking place just opposite her building. The police were thus obliged to do something that meant entering a city that, as noted, had been a no-go area for them. Once the police arrived on the scene the youth, who had been reigning over Clichy pretty unmolested for years, got really angry. A brief chase took place in the street and two of the youths, who were not actually chased by the police, sought refuge in a cordoned off area housing a power pylon. Both were electrocuted. Once news of their death was out, Clichy was all up in arms. With cries of "God is Great", bands of youths armed with whatever they could get hold of went on a rampage and forced the police to flee. The French authorities, however, could not allow a band of youths to expel the police from part of the French territory. So, they hit back by sending in Special Forces, known as the CRS, with armored cars and tough rules of engagement.

Within hours the original cause of the incidents was forgotten and the issue jelled around a demand by the representatives of the rioters that the French police leave the "occupied territories." By mid-week the riots had spread to three of the provinces neighboring Paris with a population of 5.5 million.

But who lives in the affected areas?

In Clichy itself more than 80 percent of the inhabitants are Muslim immigrants or their children, mostly from Arab and black Africa. In other affected towns the Muslim immigrant community accounts for between 30 and 60 percent of the population.

But these are not the only figures that matter. Average unemployment in the affected areas is estimated at around 30 percent and, when it comes to young would-be workers, reaches 60 percent. In these suburban towns, built in the 1950s in imitation of the Soviet social housing of the Stalinist era, people live in crammed conditions, sometimes several generations in a tiny apartment, and see "real French life" only on television.

The French used to flatter themselves for the success of their policy of "assimilation" which was supposed to turn immigrants from any backgrounds into "proper Frenchmen" within a generation at most. The policy of assimilation worked as long as immigrants came to France in drips and drops and thus could merge into a much larger mainstream. Assimilation, however, cannot work when in most schools in the affected areas fewer than 20 percent of the pupils are native French speakers.

France has also lost another powerful mechanism for assimilation: The obligatory military service that was abolished in the 1990s.

As the number of immigrants and their descendants increases in a particular locality, more and more of its native French inhabitants leave for "calmer places", thus making assimilation still more difficult. In some areas it is possible for an immigrant or his descendants to spend a whole life without ever encountering the need to speak French let alone familiarize himself with any aspect of the famous French culture.

The result is often alienation. And that, in turn, gives radical Islamists an opportunity to propagate their message of religious and cultural apartheid. Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be re-organized on the basis of the "millet" system that was in force in the Ottoman Empire. Under that system each religious community is regarded as "millet" and enjoys the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs.

In some parts of France de facto "millet" system is already in place. In these areas all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist "hijab" while most men grow their beards to the length prescribed by the sheikhs. The radicals have managed to chase away French shopkeepers selling wine and alcohol and pork products, forced "places of sin" such as dancing halls, cinemas and theaters to close down and, seized control of much of the local administration often through permeation.

A reporter who spent last weekend in Clichy and its neighboring towns of Bondy, Aulany-sous-Bois and Bobigny heard a single overarching message: The French authorities should keep out!

"All we demand is to be left alone," said Mouloud Dahmani, one of the local "emirs" engaged in negotiations to persuade the French to withdraw the police and allow a committee of sheikhs, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate an end to the hostilities.

President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community. That illusion has now been shattered and the Chirac administration, already passing through a deepening political crisis, appears to be clueless about how to cope with what the Parisian daily France Soir has called a "ticking time bomb".

It is now clear that a good portion of France's Muslims not only refuse to assimilate into "the superior French culture" but firmly believe that Islam offers the highest forms of life.

So what is the solution? One solution, offered by Gilles Kepel, an advisor on Islamic affairs to Chirac, is the creation of "a new Andalusia" in which Christians and Muslims would live side by side and cooperate to create a new cultural synthesis.

The problem with Kepel's vision, however, is that it does not address the important issue of political power: Who will rule this new Andalusia — Muslims or the largely secularist Frenchmen?

Suddenly, French politics has become worth watching again, even though for the wrong reasons.

This item is available on the Benador Associates website, at http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/18823

 

[Tolik]

Very Interesting!

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[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[vimto]

I don't get it.

.....the French are taking knocks for not integrating...people who don't want to be integrated! Have I missed something?

[ThomasMore]

Religion of Peace bump!

With cries of "God is Great", bands of youths armed with whatever they could get hold of went on a rampage and forced the police to flee.

Islam is the problem!

[Darnright]

So, the French are looking at a series of secessions within their country. Are we witnessing the first days of civil war, or will the rioting, pardon the pun, burn itself out?

[vimto]

Your tag line caught my eye. Not just France but this whole Islamic thing has a Biblical dimension. They cannot win the war, but they may yet take many down with them before this is properly played out.

Why so the nations rage so furiously together against the LORD and His appointed. Ps 2
It isn't meant as a question but to point out the sheer futility of it?

[Sabatier]

"...the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs..."

Which in Islam is the same as its law.

The Muslims want total autonomy.

They're not interested in living under French law,
or Belgian law, or German law, or Israeli law, etc.
Only the law of Islam.

[FlipWilson]

The dam busted. Suddenly there is NO France. Very shortly, Le Pen will actually win an election in France and I predict a civil war that Europe has not seen since the French Revolution. In the end, I forsee mass deportations and some other bad stuff.

The French invited the muslims into their country to fill a labor shortage after WWII. But when their economy hit the skids, it was the native French who got the jobs and they had nothing for the Arabs/Africans. Even worse, they never shut down the flow into the country of Arab/African immigrants.

[CaptainK]

In some parts of France de facto "millet" system is already in place. In these areas all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist "hijab" while most men grow their beards to the length prescribed by the sheikhs.

Yesterday, on the various news outlets, I saw a lot of mewing by British pundits about the cause of the unrest. Of course they saw it as failure of the French to not assimilate its foreign populace, discrimination and lack of jobs.

No one seemed to notice that when the agitators were interviewed, there were no women anywhere to be seen. Not on the street, not looking out of windows. The mirror image of every scene you see from the Middle East, where men gather in the thousands while women appear to have vanished from the earth. To the European elites subjugation of women by the Muslims is fine and dandy, just as long as they keep it in the community.

[SlowBoat407]

The problem came when one of the inhabitants, a female busybody, telephoned the police and reported the thieving spree taking place just opposite her building.

Please tell me this was sarcasm.

[ThomasMore]

The futility of hatred!

[eureka!]

Marking for later read....

[Gritty]

France has supported the Palestinian Cause for a good reason - it is looking more like Palestine every day!

[LibFreeUSA]

IF THIS IS TRUE, THEN ALL YOU HAVE TO SEE is the THIS IS PROBLEM...

-"nothing dramatic would have happened as the police have not been present in that suburb for years.

-"The problem came when one of the inhabitants, a female busybody, telephoned the police and reported the thieving spree taking place just opposite her building. The police were thus obliged to do something that meant entering a city that, as noted, had been a no-go area for them. Once the police arrived on the scene the youth, who had been reigning over Clichy pretty unmolested for years, got really angry.

ESSENTIALLLY, THE FRENCH GAVE UP THEIR SOVEREIGNITY "...YEARS AGO"!

[ladyjane]

The French invited the muslims into their country to fill a labor shortage after WWII.

There's a parallel here. Fortunately most of our illegals are Christian.

[Alia]

Just read Joel Kotkin's at WSJo ("Why Immigrants Don't Riot Here"). Mr. Kotkin attributes France's overregulatory programs and centralized government as creating pockets of misery. Strikes me as positing a pro for "enterprise zones". His arguments concerning immigration in the US and in lesser dense, lesser overregulated locations is quite good. Fascinating compare/contrast, very thoughtful, in parsing the two articles.

[NonValueAdded]

No, really. If only she kept her mouth shut, let the yutes strip her car and file her insurance claim, none of this would have happened. Instead, she cried out "the emperor has no clothes" and the rest is history.

Surely that is what the writer was telling us.

[kimosabe31]

President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community.

Is it conceivable we may soon see the heads of chirac and villepin mounted on pikes. These two fools are incapable of leadership. If the muslims don't do it, the french may do it themselves.

[frithguild]

France has also lost another powerful mechanism for assimilation: The obligatory military service that was abolished in the 1990s.

These young have not been taught the value of surrender - the third level in the French methodology (First is "Run!", second is "Hide" and fourth is "Collaborate")

President Jacques Chirac and Premier de Villepin are especially sore because they had believed that their opposition to the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 would give France a heroic image in the Muslim community. That illusion has now been shattered...

I am shocked by this! SHOCKED I tell you!!