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Paris seeks "hidden hands" in riots, locals unsure
Reuters ^ | 05 November 2005 | Tom Heneghan

Posted on 11/12/2005 10:42:50 PM PST by Lorianne

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (Reuters) - With every night that France's rundown suburbs burn, officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here.

Many people who watch their cars, shops and schools go up in flames, however, are not buying it. They blame unemployment, racial prejudice and widespread youth boredom for the outbursts.

Finding "hidden hands" behind the unrest seems like trying to catch the rioters as they rampage through the night. Some may get caught, but far more slip away in the darkness.

"Everybody is fed up seeing our town and our district trampled over daily by these organised gangs," declared Gerard Gaudron, conservative mayor of the northeastern Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois after an hour-long march against violence.

If the police don't crack down on these "hooligans," the embattled Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has warned, "who would give the orders? The mafias and the fundamentalists."

Fouzi Guendouz doesn't agree. "I don't think that's the real reason. It was just an excuse for kids to trash things," said Guendouz, 20, a French-born business student of Algerian origin.

"The politicians blame it on Islamists because the French are afraid of this religion. They think Islam equals bin Laden."

"Whoever knows who's behind this should come here and say it openly," shouted a defiant man in a Muslim prayer cap. "The problem is there's nothing for youths to do here."

Ahmed Hamidi, a white-bearded Moroccan electrician long resident in France, had no patience with politicians in Paris, which lies hardly an hour away but seems like another planet.

"All the politicians care about are laws for homosexuals and all those immoral things," he fumed. "They are against headscarves, against beards and against the mosques.

THEORY VERSUS REALITY?

Aulnay-sous-Bois was calm overnight, but there were still many charred cars and delivery vans along the way as the "march against violence" snaked in between the faded housing blocks.

Acrid smoke still rose from the smouldering ruins of a large carpet and floor covering depot set ablaze by arsonists two days ago. Deep in an isolated industrial zone, the depot was clearly the target of arsonists who went out of their way to hit it.

The growing frequency of attacks like this, in contrast to the car and trash hopper blazes set by marauding youths earlier in the unrest, prompted Paris prosecutor Yves Bot to join the officials blaming the rioting on organised gangs.

"This is done in a way that gives every appearance of being coordinated," he told Europe 1 radio. "For the moment, we see there is a movement against official institutions but it does not seem to be taking an ethnic or religious turn."

Another student in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Jeremie Garrigues, 19, doubted this was the case. "If those kids had been organised, they would have done much worse -- they would have used guns and bombs against town hall and the prefecture," he argued.

"Those are all politicians' theories," remarked an Algerian woman named Samia, whose main concern was how frightened her children were by the unrest. "We live here in reality."

NICE CARS AND EXPENSIVE PHONES

It's only on the fringes of the march, out of earshot of the multi-cultural crowd of concerned residents, that anybody tries to reconcile the opposing explanations.

"I'm sure there are drug dealers and Islamic radicals at work," said a middle-aged woman who requested anonymity. "Drugs are everywhere. They've arrested Islamic radicals nearby here."

A social worker who also withheld his name said some rioters seemed linked to the drug trade because they "drive nice cars and use mobile telephones I couldn't afford to buy.

"When the government is determined to fight this underground economy, there's bound to be resistance," he said. "There is no headquarters organising this, but they seem to be coordinating their activities among themselves by phone."

The charge that Islamist radicals were trying to exploit the unrest was a difficult one for local Muslims to handle, he said, because many were working to prevent unrest and admitting there were radicals in the crowds would discredit their community.

"They can't say that, so they don't say anything," he added.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: france; insurgency; intifada; jihad; parisriots; quagmire; surrender; terrorism; uprising
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1 posted on 11/12/2005 10:42:50 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
"Many people who watch their cars, shops and schools go up in flames, however, are not buying it. They blame unemployment, racial prejudice and widespread youth boredom for the outbursts."

France is lost....completely...
2 posted on 11/12/2005 10:47:08 PM PST by Dallas59 (“You love life, while we love death.” - Al-Qaeda / Democratic Party)
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To: Lorianne

"and against the mosques"

Bull$hit. THey are on every frickin street corner in France. The french government has even let them turn churches into mosques and even provides public funding for them. Completely going against the socalism concept of total seperation of church and state. As long as it involves Islam, the french are always in the bent over position.


3 posted on 11/12/2005 10:47:54 PM PST by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: Lorianne

We tell them that they're house is on fire, and they say what fire. How much farther can they stick they're head up they're a$$es?


4 posted on 11/12/2005 10:49:40 PM PST by Lancer_N3502A
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To: Dallas59

They're bored. That's the reason they burn down buildings and ignite cars. I see.


5 posted on 11/12/2005 10:50:41 PM PST by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Lorianne

bttt


6 posted on 11/12/2005 10:52:23 PM PST by nopardons
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Dallas59

They have been for decades. Socialism as sucked any national identity or pride in their country out of the people. Nobody goes to church. The country is run by a never ending series of clownish leftist elitists who have cultivated a culture of america bashing for political gain.
They've allowed their country to be over run by 3rd world muslims who refuse to assimilate, and they bow down to their every demand. None of the ethnic french are having children.
They have no real military. They depend on the UN for them to be able to weld power on the world stage. Their economy is dying.

France is completely lost and there is no way to regain it. THey are past the point of no return. It will be an islamic country within 30 years.


8 posted on 11/12/2005 10:57:25 PM PST by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: paul51
Note to self: When bored, initiate Islamic uprising...
9 posted on 11/12/2005 10:57:54 PM PST by Dallas59 (“You love life, while we love death.” - Al-Qaeda / Democratic Party)
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To: Proud_USA_Republican
This is all a negotiating tactic the French are using to help us make sure Iran doesn't develop nukes. Sarcasm
10 posted on 11/12/2005 11:02:55 PM PST by one more state
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To: Lorianne; Vicomte13; Fred Nerks; jan in Colorado; USF
As amazing as it seems to Americans, France may be the first to awaken in this battle (not Chirac or de Villepin...but that minority that maintains the drops of blood holding French courage). Just because the leaders are cowards is no reason to forget the strength of Enguerrand de Coucy and men like him.

Against the scourge of Islam...I say "vive le France."

11 posted on 11/12/2005 11:03:19 PM PST by Dark Skies (" For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. " Matthew 6:21)
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To: Lorianne

The first place I would look is the French Communist Party.


12 posted on 11/12/2005 11:05:09 PM PST by U S Army EOD (LET ME KNOW WHERE HANOI JANE FONDA IS WHEN SHE TOURS)
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To: Dallas59

or tell neighbors to take tire irons out of cars and use them. Are they all waiting for some else to do it for them?


13 posted on 11/12/2005 11:09:56 PM PST by magua
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To: Dallas59
"Many people who watch their cars, shops and schools go up in flames, however, are not buying it. They blame unemployment, racial prejudice and widespread youth boredom for the outbursts."

So how come all the non-mulsim immigrants aren't involved too? Islam is a failed culture - when they don't get their, they resort to violence against innocents.

14 posted on 11/12/2005 11:12:08 PM PST by Fenris6 (3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud)
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To: Lorianne

I'm at a loss as to how this could possibly benefit drug traffickers. Seriously. If somebody can figure that angle I'd be very interested in hearing about it. I would, of course, use the information for educational purposes only.


15 posted on 11/12/2005 11:25:45 PM PST by KarinG1 (Some of us are trying to engage in philosophical discourse. Please don't allow us to interrupt you.)
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To: magua

how do you wpell conspiracy????

all active accross 273 towns???

all organ ized and structured

muslim uprising, nothing more.

ask belgium,
ask the netherlands

who simultaneously had a problem


16 posted on 11/12/2005 11:26:55 PM PST by jackson29
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To: Lorianne

Yeah boredom and unemployment.... that's the root cause...

And right now the people in those district are trying to impress potential investors with their resume????

Copuout or denial, that's about sums up this article.


17 posted on 11/12/2005 11:31:19 PM PST by Tempest (I'm a Christian. Before I am a conservative.)
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To: Lorianne

Now that the clerics have schooled the 'beur yoots' in vandalism and destruction, all the while the government does nothing, and the french stand by watching and wringing their hands in abject cowardice, just wait until islam brings in the professionals; the molotov cocktails will look like little birthday candles in comparison.

Islamofascists will go as far as france lets them, and then they will fan out across europe. The excuses will need to become more creative, but lie to us the socialists certainly will. It's their ideology europe has to thank for this. Marxism.


18 posted on 11/12/2005 11:36:36 PM PST by Fred Nerks (The media isn't mainstream it's the ENEMY! The enemy enemy ENEMEDIA!)
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To: Lorianne
The MSM sure does like to base stories on and take quotes from 19 and 20 year olds. The only place in the world wisdom is supposed to reside are moose-limb kids in froggieville.

Nam Vet

19 posted on 11/12/2005 11:39:11 PM PST by Nam Vet (The Gaulistinians are rioting to reclaim the ancient 'holy ground' of Paris.)
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To: Dark Skies
"vive le France."

I'm afraid it's "vive la France".

20 posted on 11/12/2005 11:41:13 PM PST by pawdoggie
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