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Arabs blame French society, discrimination
ap on Yahoo ^ | 11/09/05 | TAREK AL-ISSAWI - ap

Posted on 11/09/2005 12:05:20 PM PST by NormsRevenge

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - France's riots have set off a round of troubled debate across the Arab world: Most here blame a failure to offer opportunity to immigrants, but others see a more ominous clash of cultures over Islam.

Across the Middle East, the images of burning cars and stone-throwing young people have dominated newspapers and television. Analysts have hotly debated the riots' meaning, their cause and whether they might spread.

"The anger displayed, and the intensity with which it has spread, is alarming," said one Persian Gulf political analyst, Abdul Khaleq Abdulla.

Most attribute the flare-ups to social injustice and high unemployment, rather than anti-Islamic discrimination or a wider culture clash. They have urged the French government — and the Western world at large — to take concrete steps to rectify the problem.

"There are no puzzles here. The core problem is mass degradation and alienation manifesting themselves in ... belts of educated, usually unemployed, young men throughout Arab and Asian urban areas; and in parallel urban zones of mass disenfranchisement and marginalization," said Rami Khouri, writing Wednesday in the Lebanon Daily Star.

Added Al-Arabiya director Abdel Rahman al-Rashed: "These are the voices of a community that has no voice on the political scene."

But Iran has taken a more provocative slant, blaming anti-Islamic sentiment that it contends is widespread across Europe.

"Restrictions imposed on the Islamic dress code in France are an official policy there and the government has suppressed minorities' beliefs and humiliated them openly," the hard-line Jomhuri Eslami daily said in a commentary.

Immigrants tend to blend in more in the United States, while in Europe the barriers of culture, language and class are high, noted Shafiq al-Ghabra, the president of the American University in Kuwait, in his column in Al-Rai Al-Aam daily.

The worry is that right-wing groups will gain power in France because of the uprisings, he said.

"Will Europe enter into a confrontation phase with Muslims on its territories?" he asked.

Many of those rioting are French-born children of immigrants from France's former Arab and north African territories like Algeria. Community leaders in France's slums have long complained of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.

Among government leaders in the Arab world, the images of streets on fire raised many alarms.

In Saudi Arabia, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday that King Abdullah, in a telephone conversation with French President Jacques Chirac, expressed "the kingdom's hope that the French government would be able to put an end to the acts of sabotage."

The Jordan Times, an English-language daily, compared the French riots to those three years ago in Maan, a poor city in southern Jordan that is an Islamist stronghold and frequently prone to rioting.

"Many blamed the riots on Islamic fundamentalism, exactly like many today are speaking of religious violence in the Parisian banlieues (suburbs)," said the Jordan Times in an editorial. "But deep down, they are two stories of denied opportunities, forgotten reform."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: arabs; blame; borderslanguage; culture; discrimination; everyoneelsesfault; french; goodgrief; gwot; immigration; islamofacism; refuse2assimilate; scum; society
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1 posted on 11/09/2005 12:05:22 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

I do not think Europe has any lessons to learn from Islamic countries.

Kristopher.


2 posted on 11/09/2005 12:08:46 PM PST by Kristopher
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To: NormsRevenge

Yeah so to get back at those racists French who treat OUR PEOPLE so badly, we;ll blow up a Hotel or 2 in Jordan.

(And they wonder why Isralies are at the forefront of Medicine, Engineering and Technology and they are at the forefront of NOTHING but blasse terrorism).


3 posted on 11/09/2005 12:09:05 PM PST by funkywbr
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To: NormsRevenge
The message I read? "Muslims follow a religion that preaches that anyone who disagrees with them can be enslaved or killed, so it's probably a good idea not to let any into your country in the first place, much less allow them access to cheap housing and the dole so that they can charge YOU for the opportunity to lay the groundwork for your own destruction in the name of so-called 'injustice.'">

I think that pretty much covers it. Did I miss anything?

4 posted on 11/09/2005 12:09:13 PM PST by 50sDad (Star Trek Tri-D Chess: http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~abartmes/tactical.htm)
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To: NormsRevenge
But Iran has taken a more provocative slant, blaming anti-Islamic sentiment that it contends is widespread across Europe.

Heh heh. But rioting is sure to reverse that trend.

5 posted on 11/09/2005 12:09:46 PM PST by Dark Skies ("A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants." -- Churchill)
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To: NormsRevenge

Discrimination? Obviously the French weren't too discriminating when they gave millions of Islamics French citizenship.


6 posted on 11/09/2005 12:10:28 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: NormsRevenge
"Restrictions imposed on the Islamic dress code in France are an official policy there and the government has suppressed minorities' beliefs and humiliated them openly," the hard-line Jomhuri Eslami daily said in a commentary.

Like this?

Saudi Arabia - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bibles are illegal. Churches are illegal.

Yemen - Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims and forbids conversions. The Government does not allow the building of new non-Muslim places of worship.

Kuwait - Registration and licensing of religious groups. Members of religions not sanctioned in the Koran may not build places of worship. Prohibits organized religious education for religions other than Islam.

Egypt - Islam is the official state religion and primary source of legislation. Accordingly, religious practices that conflict with Islamic law are prohibited. Muslims may face legal problems if they convert to another faith. Requires non-Muslims to obtain what is now a presidential decree to build a place of worship.

Algeria - The law prohibits public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam. Non-Islamic proselytizing is illegal, and the Government restricts the importation of non-Islamic literature for distribution.

Jordan - Has the death penalty for any Muslim selling land to a Jew.

Sudan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death.

Pakistan - Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Bans proselytizing by non-Muslims. Christians regularly put in prison for charges of blasphemy.

7 posted on 11/09/2005 12:10:32 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - They want to die for Islam, and we want to kill them.)
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To: NormsRevenge

There are a couple dozen muslim paradises close at hand for them to choose from. I suggest that France begin sending them to paradise now.


8 posted on 11/09/2005 12:10:35 PM PST by marron
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To: funkywbr

"Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and not a damn thing since then."


9 posted on 11/09/2005 12:10:50 PM PST by 50sDad (Star Trek Tri-D Chess: http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~abartmes/tactical.htm)
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To: NormsRevenge


10 posted on 11/09/2005 12:14:36 PM PST by tkathy (Ban the headscarf. (All religious headdress). The effect will creat a huge domino effect..)
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To: 50sDad
"Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and not a damn thing since then."

Or "Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and Zero since then"

11 posted on 11/09/2005 12:14:51 PM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: NormsRevenge

I izz a victim of so ci etay!


12 posted on 11/09/2005 12:15:15 PM PST by calrighty (C'mon troops, finish em off!!)
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To: Kristopher

Amputations and beheadings are reserved for after prayers on Fridays.


13 posted on 11/09/2005 12:16:07 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: NormsRevenge
They have urged the French government — and the Western world at large — to take concrete steps to rectify the problem.

I can't say I was expecting a period of introspection.

14 posted on 11/09/2005 12:16:29 PM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: NormsRevenge

Arabs blame French society, discrimination
THEN
Go back to whatever arab country you came from, you won't have these problems, and you will be happy in your new-found islamo-bliss!


15 posted on 11/09/2005 12:16:35 PM PST by Polyxene (For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel - Martin Luther)
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To: NormsRevenge
Arabs blame French society, discrimination

So do the French. When will they learn? Will it be too late? The French have nothing to learn from these Arabs, but they should take a lesson from the US, Australia, and others willing to fight the terrorism. And soon.

16 posted on 11/09/2005 12:17:09 PM PST by fortunecookie
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To: NormsRevenge
They have urged the French government — and the Western world at large — to take concrete steps to rectify the problem

First they should remove the plank in their own eye.

17 posted on 11/09/2005 12:17:14 PM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: NormsRevenge

Notice it's never 'their' fault...


18 posted on 11/09/2005 12:23:18 PM PST by fhlh (Polls are for strippers and liberal spin.)
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To: 50sDad

I believe the zero, like "arabic" numerals, is a Hindu invention.


19 posted on 11/09/2005 12:24:24 PM PST by stop_fascism
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To: 50sDad; A Ruckus of Dogs
"Islam: we gave the world the Zero a thousand years ago, and not a damn thing since then."

No they didn't.

20 posted on 11/09/2005 12:24:33 PM PST by Squeako (ACLU: "Only Christians, Boy Scouts and War Memorials are too vile to defend.")
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