Posted on 10/30/2006 11:53:15 AM PST by GMMAC
At war with radical Islam
National Post
Mon 30 Oct 2006
Page: A13
Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Lorne Gunter
Social housing must be counted as one of the greatest failures -- and there are many -- of the "progressive" thinking of the 1960s and 1970s.
Nearly everywhere large public housing projects have been built, they have become incubators for crime, drug dependence, fatherless families, unemployment and welfare. Rather than lifting minorities out of poverty, social housing has herded them together where they are easier prey for bad people and bad ideas.
So, at least some of the troubles in the Paris banlieues (suburbs) in recent years can be attributed to France's version of mass public accommodation.
It is true, the vast majority of rioters, criminals and agitators in the French "housing estates" have been Muslims, mostly from France's former colonies in North Africa. And it is true their faith is a contributing factor in their violence.
Radical imams use the poor conditions in collectivist housing to whip up religious fervour among young Muslim residents.
Still, as Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse point out in their new book, Integrating Islam, nearly one-fifth of French immigrants do not have jobs. In the banlieues, where Muslim immigrants predominate, the rate approaches 50%.
Muslims account for more than half of all inmates in French prisons. In prisons near the banlieues, that figure is between 70% and 80%.
In many French housing projects, two out of every three men have been arrested at least once in their lives. Nearly half have been in prison at least once in the past decade.
These figures mirror, and in many cases exceed, those among blacks in America's ghetto projects. Yet no one would blame the unrest in American inner cities on Islam. So it would be unfair to pin all of the unrest around Paris on Muslims' hostility to pluralistic, Western society.
Large-scale social housing projects were simply a terrible idea.
And to the extent that unemployment is a contributing factor to rioting and crime, then France's overregulated economy is partly to blame, too.
The French economy has been sluggish for more than a decade, while less-regulated economies such as Canada's, America's, Britain's, Australia's and Spain's have grown far more. Even French-born young people suffer unemployment of 15% or greater because French taxes and red tape discourage business expansion and job creation.
The riots last October in the Parisian suburbs, and the violence before and since, are caused by economics as much as they are faith-based.
Still, radical Islamism plays a distinct role. It is the spin on the ball, if you will.
Last October, French police counted 9,193 car burnings and 2,921 arrests in 21 nights of clashes with Muslim rioters. That unrest was widely reported.
Almost entirely unreported, though, has been the violence since October, 2005.
In the past 12 months, for instance, 2,500 French policemen have been injured during run-ins with Muslim criminals or protesters in Paris's projects.
The French government's explanation has been that police have been very successful at breaking up black market rings in the housing estates, so the criminals who once profited are striking back in anger for their lost income.
Maybe. But most of the time, when police conduct a successful crackdown on an illegal activity, there are fewer attacks on police in the immediate aftermath, not more.
France's police union has complained this official version is naive, or even dishonest. They insist officers have uncovered several incidents in which mosques, Muslim schools and community centres in the banlieues have been used to incite unemployed youths into jihad against police.
In recent months, an average of 20 officers have been injured each day in what police themselves are calling an intifada. In early October, Michel Thoomis, the secretary general of the Action Police trade union, said police and rioters were "in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists."
Daily, police are stoned by groups of angry, balaclava-wearing Muslim youth standing behind barricades. "You no longer see two or three youths confronting police," explained Mr. Thoomis. "You see whole tower blocks emptying into the streets to set their 'comrades' free when they are arrested."
France is Europe's canary-down-the-mine on Muslim integration. At nearly 9%, Muslims are a greater portion of the French population than they are of the population of any other European state.
If France can't manage to incorporate Muslims into its societal mainstream, there is little chance any nation can.
PING!
'France Surrenders To Muslim Youth' is more like it.
The French are fools. I wonder how long it will take for things like that to happen here? Can it?
Does not bode very well for Europe, the United States or the future of mankind,
I'm very sorry to say.
Eventually outnumbered by their exploding population, a scenario not at all unlikely for the future of our civilization, species; Planet ISLAM, I'm afraid.
As much as I fear for Europe (well, "fear" isn't exactly the right word since they are getting what they deserve), it must be remembered that non-Muslims out-number Muslims by roughly 5.7 to 1.3 billion.
Heck, there are more Chinese in China than there are Muzzies in the world. There are almost as many Sikhs and Hindus in India as there are Muzzies in the world. Christians of all faiths out-number Muzzies.
The problem is that until ALL of these people understand what submission to Islam means, they will never be able to coordinate their defenses and put Islam back in its bottle where it belongs.
Cripes, if arresting a couple brings a whole swarm out of the block into the open, I'd just call that chumming. Too bad the French have no "esprit" left.
HEY FRANCE, WAKE UP! Reduce their population, any way that you can.
It won't help us any, but I doubt we will see a planet Islam. The Chinese will have a lot to say about that and, I suspect, a more effective way to deal with the threat.
An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services.
Nearly 3,000 police officers have been injured in clashes this year.
Generalizations based on the minority is odd thinking.
They act like savages. An innocent lady was torched yesterday. They should be grateful they are in a country with modern conveniences and with opportunities. I've been to northern Africa and although it is beautiful, there is alot of poverty there.
I'm not in a submitting mood.
I've based my comment on pure mathematics. China has a strict population rule in effect. One child per family. While not 100% effective, studies have indicated that China's strong economic growth is directly related to adherence to this, which otherwise would have remained economically stagnant, the economic gains
nullified by the increase in population without one child rule.
The Muslim/Arab World see birth control as a sin, their child per family ratio much higher than the industrialized nations, a duty to have as many children in the name of Allah. Minority today, yes, but at the present rate one day not in the too-far future may very well intersect with largest of Earth's ethnic blocs.
The results of all the left's cherished ideas, the welfare state, regulated economies, low birth rates, secularism, unfettered immigration and multiculturalism are on display in Western Europe and most escpecially in France. Yet they remain blind to the effects of their ideas even as Europe disintigrates before them.
The history of Western Europe would undeniably be very different had the Frankish army been defeated in 732.
Like the victory of Constantinople some fifteen years earlier, Muslim advances had finally been thwarted, and the steady Reconquista of Spain and parts of Byzantine Empire began apace.
Though the Byzantines finally succumbed by 1453, the Turks were eventually defeated in the great naval battle at Lepanto in 1571, and turned away from Vienna in 1683.
The threat of the Caliphate encroaching on Western Europe never penetrated as far west again--until today, as unassimilated Muslim immigrants threaten to "behead those who insult Islam" and foment rage at every perceived slight.
http://slapstickpolitics.blogspot.com/2006/10/charles-martel-and-battle-of-tours.html#links
Multiple Choice Test
1. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by
(a) Superman,
(b) Jay Leno,
(c) Tiger Woods,
(d) a man from Palestine between 17 and 40 years old.
2. In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed at the Munich Olympics by
(a) the kid who cuts your grass,
(b) Sitting Bull,
(c) Arnold Schwarzenegger,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
3. In 1979, the US Embassy in Tehran was over-ran & 52 Americans were held for 444 days by
(a) Bruce Lee,
(b) Elvis Presley's deceased twin brother,
(c) a tour group of Minnesota grandmothers,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
4. During the 1980s, several Americans were kidnapped in Beirut by
(a) O J Simpson,
(b) the king of Sweden,
(c) the pope and a gang of Cardinals,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
5. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon was blown up, killing 220 Marines, by
(a) a Domino's Pizza delivery man,
(b) the president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
(c) Catherine Zeta-Jones,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
6. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year-old American passenger thrown overboard in his wheelchair by
(a) Sugar Ray Leonard,
(b) your next door neighbor,
(c) the Little Mermaid,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
7. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by
(a) Captain Kangaroo,
(b)Walt Disney,
(c) Mother Teresa,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
8. In 1988, Pan American Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb in midair by
(a) Butch Cassidy,
(b) the Sundance Kid,
(c) the Tooth Fairy,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
9. The World Trade Center was bombed the first time in 1993 by
(a) Stonewall Jackson,
(b) Michael Jordan,
(c) Winston Churchill,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
10. In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by
(a) Santa Claus,
(b) your sister's cat's grandmother's first owner's son's basketball coach's ex-wife,
(c) the World Wrestling Federation,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
11. On September 11, 2001, airliners were hijacked to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by
(a) Bugs Bunny,
(b) Bob the Tomato,
(c) Ricky Martin,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
12. In 2002, Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and beheaded by
(a) Bonnie and Clyde,
(b) the Michelin man,
(c) Barney Fife,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
13. In July of 2005, several targets were attacked in central London, killing 52 persons, by
(a) the Orkin Man,
(b) Margaret Thatcher,
(c) Mr. Goodwrench,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
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