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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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To: Lorianne

Islam's demonic puppet masters turn their "youth" into psychotic butchers.


41 posted on 11/13/2005 4:42:11 AM PST by tkathy (Ban the headscarf. (All religious headdress). The effect will creat a huge domino effect..)
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To: Lorianne

[["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. ]]

My question is.....where is the rest of the 90% French population that are allwoing these thugs to burn their country to the ground? Why havent they taken the law into their own hands? Shameless cowards!


42 posted on 11/13/2005 5:05:48 AM PST by Buffettfan
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To: pawdoggie
I'm afraid it's "vive la France".

You are correct (so far)...maybe France can make a stand re: Islam and become a "le."

43 posted on 11/13/2005 5:42:47 AM PST by Dark Skies (" For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. " Matthew 6:21)
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To: Lorianne

Muslims want to have their cake and eat it, too.


44 posted on 11/13/2005 5:46:52 AM PST by hershey
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To: Lorianne

Of course it's coordinated! This is not the blind raging outcry of a downtrodden youth! This is a carefully planned attempt to destroy French civilization!
The "youths" have been systematically destroying private motorcars - at least 7000 so far!
They have been destroying private businesses (which once gave jobs to these poor downtrodden youths) and kindergartens and day-care centers.
Remember the communist playbook: destabilize society and then rush in during the confusion to establish a communist paradise.


45 posted on 11/13/2005 5:47:08 AM PST by BooksForTheRight.com (what have you done today to fight terrorism/leftism (same thing!))
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To: Proud_USA_Republican; goldstategop
"...officials grow increasingly convinced that drug traffickers and Islamist militants are using frustrated youths to challenge law and order here..."

[Question for Reuters] Yeah? Drug pushers like to see riots? Why? How can you profit off of burnt cars and a severe drop in tourism? Pushers want the pigeons to be fat, happy, and rich. How does this riot achieve all of that? Of course, if the pushers are more than just pushers, if the pushers are just using the drug trade as a means to end, such as jihad, then a riot would make sense.
46 posted on 11/13/2005 5:54:54 AM PST by Arthur Wildfire! March ("We might have dodged a bomb but we lost a lot of brains." Bill Clinton [Veteran Sink Soldier])
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To: joshhiggins

"I suspect what they really mean is that they are looking for the "hidden hands of Bush and Rove".
How long until they tell us they have found them?"

Well, Mayor Nagin of NOLA could take Louis Fara-Con off to Paris on a helicopter. I'm sure they could get to the bottom of this. After all, they found that dynamited levy and put-two-and-four together. The Mother Wheel guides them. A laser beam will enter Louis' brain, and he will SEE the facts laid out before him. His muslim brethren will see the light!

Mister Bush sent Carl Rove on a super secret mission, with 10,000 detonators. His instructions, which will self-destruct in 15 seconds, are to blow up the gas tanks of thousands of French cars. Muslims had nothing to do with this, oh fellow muslims. It's the White Devil! He set you up!


47 posted on 11/13/2005 6:06:02 AM PST by Arthur Wildfire! March ("We might have dodged a bomb but we lost a lot of brains." Bill Clinton [Veteran Sink Soldier])
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To: joshhiggins

Oh I forgot Louis Fara-Con's Dramatic conclusion:

George Bush lied! French cars died! Louis will organize a million-more-or-less non-march in Paris, demanding the impeachment of George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, and their secret hit man, Mickey Mouse. Women and children are also welcome. There will be weenie roasts, flag burnings, and a special guest visit by Michael Jackson, who has returned to the Islamic Faith for the next two weeks. Michael Jackson will be handing out warm milk and cookies.


48 posted on 11/13/2005 6:10:38 AM PST by Arthur Wildfire! March ("We might have dodged a bomb but we lost a lot of brains." Bill Clinton [Veteran Sink Soldier])
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To: Proud_USA_Republican

"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."

Wow, that pretty much sums it up. The more secular that France has become, the more socialism and liberalism have taken over to fill the void, creating disaster. France could still pull its a*s out of the fire, but they are probably too weak-willed and ok, I must say it, downright stupid, to enact the measures which would ultimately save their country.


49 posted on 11/13/2005 7:25:26 AM PST by khnyny
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To: Dark Skies
Against the scourge of Islam, I say "Wake up!" to deluded Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

May the parking permit on their Trojan Horses be revoked.

50 posted on 11/13/2005 8:06:38 AM PST by USF (I see your Jihad and raise you a Crusade ™ © ®)
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To: Proud_USA_Republican
Socialism has sucked any national identity or pride in their country out of the people.

Yes, this is what the communists did in Russia. There was no pride in being Russian. That grand abstraction the Soviet Union became the object of admiration for them. But with the collapse of communism, the socialist left has replaced all that talk about the revolution of the proletariat with oppressed ethnic and racial groups, oppressed of course by whites who as a group have replaced the mean capitalists.

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.

I think this was by design. The only way to destroy Western culture is by replacing it with something non-Western and antagonistic to it.

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.

Yes, I think you are right about that.

51 posted on 11/13/2005 8:33:01 AM PST by stripes1776
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To: Caipirabob

muslims are completely incompetent when it comes to modern military strategy. They always jump the gun arrogantly believing they are the rightous ones because they bow to Mecca 5 times a day. Always showing their cards way too soon.

They could of waited another 10 to 15 years and France would start to fall like a house of cards cleanly. Now this will end up being a bit more prolonged and drawn out. Notre Dame won't be turned into a mosque till about 2030 now.





52 posted on 11/13/2005 10:11:06 AM 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: Dark Skies

I have to agree with you. I feel sorry for the ones, however few they may be, that do realize what we are fighting against and that are against it thelmselves.


53 posted on 11/13/2005 2:29:09 PM PST by Paul_Denton (The U.S. should adopt the policy of Oom Shmoom: Israeli policy where no one gives a sh*t about U.N.)
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